It's A Prime Adventure
by Crystal Prime
Summary: When a girl from our world enters the world of Transformers:Prime how will the Bots deal with this unexpected occurrance? And can she handle being in a world where Decepticons are just as real as the Bots? Rated T just in case.
1. Meeting the Bots

**Chapter 1: Meeting the Autobots**

"No, you dumbaft, I don't want anything to do with Starscream!" I said. "I just said he looks a lot better in Prime than any other continuity."

"Admit it, you like Prime Starscream," my brother said, clearly trying to egg me on.

He liked the 'Cons, but I didn't. I was an Autobot all the way. As shown by our necklaces. He wore a Decepticon insignia some times and I always had my Autobot insignia on.

"No I do not like that slaggin' 'Con," I said. "I don't like _any_ 'Con! Get that through your thick idiotic skull. I'm an Autobot and I do _not_ fraternize with the enemy."

"Oh, that's right, cause you like that stupid Autobot Ratchet," my brother said, grinning at my furious expression.

"Ratchet is _not_ stupid!" I said, pointing a finger at my brother before storming off before the fight could go any further.

I sighed and went out for a walk, putting my hands in my pockets and headed for the park. When I reached the park, I found my favorite tree to climb and climbed it. I sighed and looked out at the lake, focusing only the little bit needed to stay balanced on my precarious perch. I wrapped my hand around my Autobot insignia necklace and sighed again, thinking of my brother.

Supposedly, we got along great at one point in time and I had been beginning to believe that recently. But it was so long ago and I was so young, that I don't remember it. We were the opposite in almost every way. He always went for the bad guys in shows and games, unless the good guy was a female and was 'hot'. I always leaned toward the good guys, though occasionally there'd be a bad guy or two I would try to convert. Our latest argument was no example of it, but it was an example of my observance of how Decepticons usually are butt ugly and in Prime some actually look kinda cool.

The reason I had started to believe we had once gotten along so well, was because we had developed a tentative semi-good relationship over the past month or month and a half. He hadn't been rude or mean to me for the whole time since I had moved back home. But then our mom had returned from vacation. The way he treated her, I couldn't keep our tentative relationship afloat when I confronted him about it and he turned hostile. It seems he has not changed as much as I had thought.

I sighed again, leaning back against the tree trunk and falling asleep, unaware of the faint glowing of my Autobot insignia.

**~Third Person POV~**

"Why are we here, Prime?" the Autobot medic, Ratchet, asked his leader.

Optimus' holoform appeared next to his alt mode, on the side where the humans wouldn't see it appear out of nowhere. He walked around his alt form as Ratchet activated his own.

"Perhaps more human contact will let you see the good in the humans better," Optimus said.

Ratchet scoffed. "It's not like meeting other humans will make me like the children more," he said.

"I'm not speaking of the children, Ratchet," Optimus said.

"Ow!"

The two Autobots looked over at the sound. Only to see a girl sitting on the ground under a tree, rubbing her head and arm with an expression of pain.

"Ugh, note to self, don't fall asleep in trees," she murmured to herself as the two bots approached.

Ratchet immediately noticed the Autobot insignia hanging around the girl's neck. He didn't know whether to be wary, thankful it wasn't a Decepticon insignia, or worried about the girl's safety. If the Decepticons saw it, she could very well die at their servos.

"Optimus," he said.

"I see it, Ratchet," Optimus said. He moved closer to the girl and bent down to the girl. "Excuse me, do you need help?"

"Nah, I'm fine," she said, standing up and brushing off. "I've gotten worse from my brother."

"Your brother's done worse to you?" Ratchet asked as Optimus stood.

The girl nodded. "We...don't exactly see eye to eye," she said as she wrapped her hand around her Autobot insignia. Ratchet noted how it seemed unconscious.

"Excuse me if I am wrong, but is that an..." Optimus started, but was cut off.

"An Autobot insignia? Yes," she said. "I've been a fan of the show for, well, nearly all my life. I've always been a fan of the 'Bots. My brother, not so much." She shook her head, looking sad.

"Show?" Ratchet asked.

"Yeah, you know? Transformers?" she said, tilting her head at their confused looks. "Come on, you know what Autobots are, but not Transformers?" Then she looked over their shoulders at their alt form and her eyes widened. "Uh, that answers that. Uh..." Now she looked nervous and avoided looking at them.

Optimus sighed. "I believe you should come with us," he said.

She didn't answer. Ratchet was beginning to worry.

"It's for your own safety," Ratchet said. "If the Decepticons see you with our insignia, they won't hesitate to kill you."

"I know that," she said. "It's just hard to take in. One moment I'm in a tree sulking about my latest argument with my brother and the next I'm in the Transformers universe and Autobots and Decepticons are real."

She started walking toward their alt forms with their holoforms walking beside her. She didn't seem all too happy.

"You will be riding with Ratchet," Optimus said, shocking the medic.

"But Optimus!" Ratchet began to protest.

"I have something I need to check out," he said, leaving no room for argument. "Take her back to base and see what you can do for her."

"Right," Ratchet said. "Well, come on then."

Ratchet opened his door for her to climb in and she did, but not without glancing at Optimus for a brief moment.

**~Amelia's POV~**

It was really comfortable sitting inside Ratchet. I had always dreamed about the Autobots being real and hanging with the Autobots. And now I find myself in the universe of the latest continuity of Transformers: Prime. I didn't know whether to be happy or scared.

"You're quiet for a youngling," Ratchet commented as he drove. "Something on your mind?"

"I'm an adult, fyi," I said. "Though just barely. And...there's always something on my mind."

"Pfft, how old are you? Twelve?" Ratchet asked.

"No, I'm nineteen," I said. "I will be twenty come January. I am just short and young looking. It sucks sometimes."

"So," Ratchet said. "This 'Transformers' is about us?"

"Hmm," I said. "There are different continuities though. There's a lot. It appears I've fallen into the Prime continuity. Which is fine by me, sorta, it's one of my three favorite continuities."

"What do you mean by 'sorta'?" Ratchet asked.

"Well, it's not like I'm looking forward to Decepticon encounters," I said. "I mean, back home I would talk with my fellow Transfan about how we'd kick the 'Con's afts, but actually facing down a 'Con? I don't think I'm ready for that, though I am the kind of idiot who would try anyway if it came down to it."

"No one is ever ready when they first face down a 'Con," Ratchet said. "But you leave that to us."

"Hmm," I said before yawning.

"You should get some sleep once we get there," Ratchet said.

I didn't respond, only nodded in compliance. I wouldn't pass up an opportunity to rest, even if it probably wouldn't be very restful.

"What is your name, young one?" Ratchet asked.

I yawned again. "Amelia," I said.

It wasn't that long before we arrived at the Autobot base. It looked exactly like in the show and as soon as I got out, Ratchet transformed and picked me up. He carried me over to where the video games were set up.

"You'll have to sleep on the couch today, until we get a room set up for you," he said.

"Hmm, better than a tree," I said, climbing out of his hand onto the raised platform. "I can't fall out and hurt myself."

I felt a tingling sensation and knew he must've taken a scan of me. He disappeared a moment and came back with bandages and what I guessed was an anti-bacterial thing. He took my scrapped arm in a finger, applied the stuff, which stung and caused me to flinch, and then carefully wrapped it. Then he offered me something for the pain in my head.

"Meh, I don't usually take pain pills for anything," I said. "But sleeping with a hurting head was never a good idea in the past." I sighed and accepted the pill. It wasn't long before I was fast asleep on the couch.

**~Third Person POV~**

Ratchet watched as the girl fell into a peaceful sleep. He had injected the pain pill with a sedative to make sure she got her rest. He believed that they shouldn't be helping the humans, but that didn't mean he wouldn't when Prime wanted to. Not to mention that it was his job as a medic to see to the wounded. Not only did the girl need protection but his scans showed that her body was near to exhaustion, which told him she didn't usually sleep well, hence the sedative.

"Hey, Ratchet! We're here for our afternoon hang out!"

"Hmph," Ratchet responded as he turned toward the other Autobots and the three children under their protection already. "Just don't make too much noise."

"Who's this?" Bulkhead asked, having walked over to the game area with the human children and Bumblebee.

"Her name is Amelia," Ratchet said. "She'll be staying with us until I can find a way to send her home."

"Hey she's got your symbol around her neck!" Miko said. "What do you mean by 'send her home'? Wouldn't the 'Cons get her?"

"Quiet down, she needs rest," Ratchet said, shooing the overactive girl away from the sleeping form. "She is not from this world. If she goes home, she won't have to worry about things from this world."

"You mean like, an alternate dimension?" Raf asked.

"I'm guessing," Ratchet said.

"Cool!" Miko said.

"But what happens if you can't send her home?" Arcee asked.

Ratchet sighed. "Then, I'm afraid she may get caught up in our fight as these children have," he said.

Everyone looked at the sleeping girl as she rolled over and mumbled something about 'stinkin Cons go jump off a cliff'. This caused a few of them to look at her worriedly, a few to snicker and Miko to comment on how she might not argue about getting caught up in it.


	2. First Day part 1

**Chapter 2: First Day on Base Part 1**

**~Amelia's POV~**

I yawned as I woke up and sat up. I still felt a little groggy, but I noticed one big difference. I felt like I had gotten some rest. I looked around and found no one present. When I looked at the clock on the wall, I saw why. It's only four o'clock in the morning, everyone would be in recharge.

I sighed and laid back on the couch and gazed at the video games. I sighed again, not feeling like playing them, and got up to go explore instead. I walked down the stairs and headed down the hallway. Everything was so big that I had no choice but to look up in order to see everything, but that was to be expected in a place that housed Cybertronians. I was so busy gazing at my surroundings that I wasn't aware I was about to run right into Optimus until he held his hand down and gently stopped me. I blinked, looking up at him as he offered his hand for me to climb on. I did so.

"Good morning," I said.

He nodded as he headed for the main room. "You are awake early," Optimus said.

I tilted my head. "Considering what time I went to sleep, I should've been awake sooner," I said. "But whatever Ratchet gave me can't keep me asleep indefinitely. I can only sleep so long."

"You know our names," Optimus observed.

"Yup, you're Optimus Prime," I said. "One of the most awesome of all Autobots. I always viewed you as like a father figure or a much, much older brother. And if I remember right, Bumblebee, Arcee and Bulkhead are here as well."

It was minute, but I thought I saw the corners of his mouth twitch upward. I frowned at him. "You need to smile more," I said. "It is now my mission to make you smile."

"Why do you feel the need to make me smile?" he asked.

"Because," I said. "You always made me smile when I was back in my world. Even though you weren't there or anything, I could just stare at a picture of you or your movie verse counterpart and just feel all happy and calm, no matter what was going wrong in my life at the time. Weird, but true. Watching Transformers was one of few things that could cheer me up no matter what. And I needed cheering up a lot. I want to repay the favor."

"Your brother?" Optimus asked.

"Hmm, not just him," I said. "People in general." I sighed and curled up into a ball, looking off a spot on the wall. "I wasn't exactly popular. Heck, I never had any friends growing up. I got friends at church, but even some people there hate my guts, because I'm a bit different than most. And people don't like different. My church friends like me because I'm different. They like my personality, but most people are put off by something about me and never get to know me enough to _know_ my personality, because they're too busy looking at my bad aspects and accusing me of things that aren't even true. Sorry, I'm ranting again."

"It's ok," Optimus said.

"That's quite a story."

I started and looked to see Arcee walking with us. "I never even knew you were there, I'm sorry," I said.

"It's ok, you were ranting," Arcee said.

I laughed a little and rolled my eyes. "Oh, now my ranting is becoming an excuse for being oblivious," I said. I sighed, shaking my head. "One of these days, I'm going to be ranting and miss something like a Decepticon hovering over me and about to squish me. I really need to stop."

"No one's stopping you," Arcee said.

We were all silent for a moment and Optimus deposited me on the ground in the main area. Then I blinked.

"How come you guys are up so early?" I asked.

"Our someone-is-walking-around-base senses were tingling," Arcee said and I rolled my eyes.

"Oh, so blame it on me," I said.

"I received a communication from our liaison," Optimus said. "He's going to be here in five minutes."

I groaned. "Government people," I said. "Sometimes I'd rather get chased by a 'Con than deal with the government. Is it ok if I go hide somewhere until he leaves?"

"That is why I'm here," Arcee said. "We're going for a ride for a few hours. Only a few hours, I need to take Jack to school at eight."

I looked at her, uncertain. "You're a motorcycle, aren't you?"

"Why? Got something against motorcycles?" she asked.

"No, I've just never ridden one, because, frankly, it scares me," I said.

"You'll be safe with Arcee," Optimus said.

"Come on," Arcee said, transforming down.

I tentatively climbed on and held onto the handle bars as she zoomed out of the base with me riding on her.

"Neep!" I squeaked, squeezing her handle bars in a death grip.

Arcee chuckled a little. "Relax, I won't let you fall off," she said.

"You can say that, but I have no control of my hands once the death grip has settled in," I said. "Sorry if it's too tight."

"You're fine," Arcee said.

We were silent for a while as she sped through the desert landscape. Admittedly the wind blowing through my hair felt good and eventually I relaxed and enjoyed the ride. My grip slackened a bit, but I still didn't feel brave enough to let go and hold my arms out like I was flying, like I was oh so tempted to do.

"So, now that you are relaxed, care to talk?" Arcee asked.

"Hmm, depends on the topic," I said. "I'm sure you understand there are some things I'd just rather not talk about, like how you probably don't want to talk about Cliff."

"You know Cliff?" Arcee asked.

"Know of him, Arcee," I said. "Girl from another world, remember? Anyway, what did you want to ask me?"

Arcee was silent for a moment. "This world of yours, do any Cybertronians exist?"

"No," I said. "At least not on Earth. You guys are all fictional characters to us. Whether or not you actually do exist somewhere in the universe, no one can be sure of. I was always a firm believer that Earth was not the only inhabited planet, but I have no idea what's really out there."

"So there's no Decepticons," Arcee said.

"Nope, no Autobots either," I said. I tilted my head. "It would've been cool to have Autobots around, life wouldn't have been so bad then."

"Bad? Without Decepticons life would be way better than this life," Arcee said. "Cliff wouldn't have died. Nor would have Tailgate."

I sighed. "I know, but my life still had plenty of trouble," I said. "I guess it comes with being an outcast. My brother was probably the worst, if only because he's family. And aside from that Cliff and Tailgate wouldn't have existed either."

"How bad was your brother?" Arcee asked, seemingly ignoring the last statement.

"Imagine a human Megatron who picks one person to be cruel and unusual to," I said. "I honestly dunno how I survived dealing with him. Supposedly we got along great once, before I started walking anyway, but I was too young to remember that." I sighed. "Better to have loved and lost than not loved at all. I was never given a chance to make friends like yours. No one wanted anything to do with me and I never understood why, because I never did anything to them, though at one point I had almost been driven to that point. I very nearly became like my brother. Then I went to the church I came to call my home church. The friends I made there, pulled me out of that path before I went past the point of no return. I was just beginning to truly view them as friends when I found myself unable to go anymore. There I go ranting again."

"It's fine, sometimes it's good to rant," Arcee said. "Keeping all those feelings bottled up inside you is bad for you. I've learned that since meeting Jack. Why were you an outcast?"

"I'm different," I said. "I don't conform to the world's standards. Once you get to know me, I'm the sweetest person you could ever meet and I work hard at doing whatever I set my mind to, but most people see the rough exterior I put up as a way of dealing with my problems and they run the other way, some literally. I've been told I have a glared that'd make a 'Con tremble when I'm mad enough. I try not to get that mad though. I am very forgiving, so it's not that hard. Bullies though have faced my fury at times. I hate bullies. Or rather their actions. I don't hate the person themselves. I grew up being taught that hating people is bad and self destructive."

Arcee chuckled. "So you hate bad actions, but not bad people," she said. "What about the 'Cons?"

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't hate some of them, like Scalpel," I said. "Would that mean I wouldn't hesitate to kill one? No. I hate the idea of killing and loss of life. If there were a peaceful solution, then I would go for it. But there's no peaceful solution, so if it came down to it, I'd do what I had to. Well, try anyway. Not sure if a little human like me could do anything against a 'Con. Maybe be a distraction, I'm quite good at annoying bad guys and somehow coming out alive."

"At least you understand that there's no bartering with the 'Cons," Arcee said. "But who's Scalpel?"

"You've been fighting against the 'Cons how long and you don't know who Scalpel is?" I asked.

"I've heard his name before, but I never looked into it," Arcee said.

I shuddered, thinking about the spider bot scientist. "He's a Decepticon scientist," I said. "Creepiest little bugger you could ever meet. He's a little spider-like bot. Not like Airachnid, as she is a lot bigger and Scalpel doesn't transform between spider and bipedal. His alt form is some kind of scope or something. He's small, probably would only come up to my mid-calf or somewhere around there. But he's just as terrifying. He loves torturing his victims to death, bringing them back to life somehow and doing it all over again. He's one 'Con I wouldn't think twice of running from rather than stupidly trying to fight them. I have a horrible fears of spiders because of that 'Con."

"I don't blame you there," Arcee said and I could've sworn I felt her shiver underneath me. "You know all this from a show?"

"Yeah," I said. "I even know a bit about the last part of the war on Cybertron before you guys had to pack up and leave. There was a game called War for Cybertron about it. It starts out with the player playing as the Decepticons. I didn't get too far on that, it made me sick to my stomach. I'm sure if my sister had seen the look of horror on my face she'd have banned me from the game. I got further on the Autobot part, but got stuck at one point. I kept getting killed and once, though in the million times I attempted it only happened once, I was unable to keep Ratchet from offlining in that mission. I threw a French fry at the screen that time while yelling at the 'Cons some things I shouldn't repeat."

"A French fry? Seriously?" Arcee asked.

"Well, I didn't want to break the tv," I said. "And that's what I was eating at the time."

Arcee chuckled. "You certainly are one of a kind," she said. "The kids will love you. Especially Miko, she's about as different as they come. Do you like music?"

"I can sing, take a guess," I said, grinning.

"Really?" Arcee asked. She came to a stop in a remote place and I got off before she transformed. She sat down as I looked up at her. "Let's hear it."

"Ok, I guess I can, lemme think of a song," I said. I wracked my brain for a song to sing. When I had one, I listened to the music in my head and began.

Everybody needs to belong somewhere

Life can feel so alone without someone who cares

And when life becomes something just to get through

That's when I'm glad that I belong to you

I belong to you, I belong to you

You're the one who will never let me down

Won't let me down, I belong to you, Jesus

Sometimes life brings more pain than we can bare alone

When hope is gone and I have no strength to stand on my own

When nothing helps, there's nothing that I can do

You surround me and show me that I belong to you

I belong to you, I belong to you

You're the one who will never let me down

Won't let me down, I belong to you, Jesus

When love is gone, there's no arms to run to anymore

I'm all alone, there's no one for me to live for

Letting go of the things I've always clung to

That's when I need to feel that I belong to you

I belong to you, I belong to you

You're the one who will never let me down

Won't let me down, I belong to you, Jesus

I ended the song holding the last note for a bit until I just couldn't anymore. I blinked back some tears and wiped my eyes. When I looked up I noticed how Arcee was looking at me in concern.

"You're leaking," Arcee said.

"The human term is crying," I said. "It's a sad song, you don't think it would make me happy, do you?"

Arcee considered me for a moment before transforming back into her motorcycle form. "Hop on, we should get back to base. Fowler should be gone by now," she said.

I climbed on her a lot less hesitantly than the first time. Along the way I even gained the courage to let go with my hands and hold my arms out, taking a deep breath and enjoying the ride as much as humanly possible. It didn't last long as I soon returned my hands to the handle bars and just enjoyed the feel of the wind blowing past me. The ride was enjoyable and I found myself forgetting the sadness the song had brought on.

I was almost disappointed when we pulled into the base, to find Fowler gone and the bots were all up now. I climbed off of Arcee before she transformed.

"How was your ride?" Optimus asked as we both walked over.

"It was surprisingly fun for my first time on a motorcycle," I said.

"Informative," was Arcee's answer.

It wasn't long after that that the three 'Bots with charges left to pick the children up to take them to school. I walked up the steps to the platform next to the computers where I could watch Ratchet as he worked on something.

"Don't you have anything better to do?" Ratchet asked, sounding irritated.

"Nope," I said before yawning.

"Didn't you get enough rest?" Ratchet asked.

"That was a bored yawn, not a tired one," I said. "I felt well rested when I woke, thank you. But if you ever sedate me without my knowledge again I will whack you with a wrench."

Ratchet grunted. "Your body was exhausted and you are malnourished, you should eat something," he said.

Just as he said that my stomach growled and I sighed. "Ok, but where's the food?"

"I believe the children have a fridge somewhere near their games," Ratchet said.

I nodded, but didn't move for a second. "Hey Ratchet, can I ask you something?"

"What?" he asked.

"What would happen to me if Fowler found out I am here?" I asked.

Ratchet sighed. "He'd probably would want to take you into custody, why?"

"Government people scare me," I said. "And I'm from another universe. Makes it scarier. Maybe I've just seen too many alien shows, but in the movie verse of the Transformers, a government group called Sector Seven captures Bee and tortures him, they were turning him into an experiment before his human charge was able to stop them. And the government caused the Autobots a lot of grief in that continuity as well. I guess I'm just worried the government's the same way in this one."

Ratchet sighed and looked at me. "Agent Fowler is a pain in the aft, but he would not let the government experiment on you...I don't think," he said. Seeing my worried expression, he added, "But we will not let him take you into custody. You are under our protection now."

I smiled slightly, but couldn't shake the nagging feeling that things were going to go wrong if, when, Fowler learned about my presence.

**~Third POV~**

Ratchet watched as the small human walked off to find something to eat. She didn't seem convinced not to worry about Fowler. She seemed to be truly afraid of the human government. It unnerved him about what she had told him about this other universe involving the Autobots. He sighed and commed Optimus.

"**Ratchet to Prime,"** he said.

"**What's the matter, old friend?"** Optimus responded.

"**I'm concerned about our newest charge,"** Ratchet said. **"She is malnourished, I have reason to believe she doesn't sleep well and she has expressed that she is afraid of the human government." **He sent his leader a recording of their conversation.

There was silence over the link as Optimus took in this information.

"**I see,"** he finally responded. Ratchet could hear the restrained anger in his leader and friend's tone. **"Have you inquired as to why she is malnourished?"**

"**I have not and she didn't volunteer the information," **Ratchet said.

"**Understood,"** Optimus said. **"I will be returning from patrol in a few kliks, until then just watch over her."**

"**Will do,"** Ratchet said.

Ratchet cut the communication and watched as the human known as Amelia sat on the couch, eating some food and staring at the tv as if in a debate with herself whether to play the game or do something else. Her brow furrowed as she looked at one of the foods she had pulled out of the fridge. Then she shrugged, took a bite, and immediately made a face before swallowing the bite in difficulty and placing the rest back onto the plate.

"Bleh," she said. "Ok, whatever that is, it's not tasty. At all. Well, at least there is food to dislike."

Had Ratchet not had really good hearing, he would not have heard the comment. It was a quietly spoken one, obviously not meant to be heard by anyone. He rolled his optics, apparently the new charge had a habit of talking to herself. He turned back to the computer and the work he was doing on it, trying to find a way to send the girl back home, though something in the back of his processor was nagging that it wouldn't be a good idea.

**~Amelia's POV~**

I glared at the offending piece of mystery meat. It was the only thing left on my plate. I had thought it was chicken when I had placed it there, but one bite was enough to know it wasn't. Maybe it's fish. No, even fish tastes better than that. So what the slag could it be?

I looked over the where Ratchet and Optimus had disappeared to. It wasn't but a minute ago that Optimus had returned from patrol and immediately the two had disappeared to discuss something. This left me in the main area by myself. It was a big place to be alone in, but I was used to it. I stood up, disposed of the remaining mystery meat and walked down the steps in order to go exploring, like I had been unsuccessful in completing this morning because of Fowler's visit.

"Well, when there's nothing else to do, get familiar with where you live," I said to myself. "Something that should be done anyway."

I spent a good portion of the day exploring base. After all, if I'm going to live here from now on, I should be familiar with the corridors. Well, I'd be living here until they found a way to send me home, anyway. I was sure Ratchet would be happy to get the newest annoyance out of his servos. I don't even know why Optimus had decided for me to stay here anyway. Sure the Decepticons would kill me if they learned I carried the Autobot insignia around my neck, but they didn't know about me yet. Did they?

I shook my head, not wanting to think about it. Instead, I pulled out my iPod that I had forgotten I had with me and put in the headphones as I explored. Putting the headphones in made me think of a specific song and I grinned. I searched through my songs list and hit play and sang along with it. Unaware of Ratchet and Optimus walking up behind me, having come to find me. They hung back seeing I was about to do something and they were curious.

"She gave it her best, she tried to fit in

She tried to be cool, but she never could win

Her mom says she's great, the kids think she's weird

Honestly, she wishes she could disappear

Why you try, try to be like the rest of them

When you know there's so much more within

There's only one you, here's what you gotta do

Anytime you feeling low, put on your headphones

Love love's comin through your headphones

Anytime you feeling low, put on your headphones

Love love's comin through your headphones

Lo~ve is comin through your headphones

Lo~ve is comin through your headphones

He gets in his car, he falls apart

He came to an end, and now it's breaking his heart

He wants to give up, wants to try again

Honestly, he doesn't know what he's feeling

Hey you might not see it with your eyes

But keep your head up to the sky

The sun is comin through, here's what you gotta do

Anytime you feeling low, put on your headphones

Love love's comin through your headphones

Anytime you feeling low, put on your headphones

Love love's comin through your headphones

Lo~ve is comin through your headphones

Lo~ve is comin through your headphones

Keep your head up high, dust off your shoulders

It's alright, no it's not over

Love is here, it came to dry up all your tears

Oh can you feel it

Hey gotta believe it, gonna see it

By your side in the middle of the night

Keep your head up high, dust off your shoulders

It's alright, no it's not over

Anytime you feeling low, put on your headphones

Love love's comin through your headphones

Anytime you feeling low, put on your headphones

Love love's comin through your headphones

Lo~ve is comin through your headphones

Lo~ve is comin through your headphones

Keep your head up high, dust off your shoulders

Keep your head up high, dust off your shoulders

Twinkle twinkle in your eye, listen to this lullaby

The sun is shining in the sky, see love is in your eyes

This ain't the first time you felt like this

This ain't the last time you feel like this

But it'll be fine, if you can just smile"

I ended the song feeling a whole lot better than I had felt before. However, as the silence reigned as I was searching for another song, I became aware of footsteps and stopped, turning around. I blinked at the two mechs who looked like they had been caught doing something they shouldn't.

"Were you two following me this whole time?" I asked.

"We weren't following you, we were going the same direction," Ratchet said.

I smiled, rolling my eyes. "You know that makes you sound guilty, right?"

Ratchet paused and I almost thought he was gonna glitch on us. It made me chuckle.

"We wanted to talk to you," Optimus said, walking over and offering his hand for me to climb up.

I sighed, turned off my iPod and wrapped the wire around it before placing it in my pocket. I climbed onto his offered hand. He stood back up straight and carried me back to Ratchet before we went in a direction I hadn't been yet.

"This is the second time you've been found wondering the halls," Optimus observed.

"I'm not really into the games the kids have set up," I said, tilting my head. "And I like exploring, it's fun. Though, is there anything I should know so I don't land myself in trouble exploring the base?"

"Yeah, don't touch anything," Ratchet said.

"Ok," I said. "Other than that, walking helps me clear my mind." I shrugged.

We were silent from there as Optimus led the way to an office of sorts. I guessed it was Optimus' if the fact the desk wasn't filled with medical stuff was any indication. Not that I know what Ratchet's office looked like. It just made more sense for it to be Optimus'. I blinked when I saw the tell-tale blink that said he locked the door. Does he think I'll run? Or does he not want anyone entering on this conversation?

"What's up with the lock? You don't think I'll run, do you?" I asked, blinking at the red light on the control panel.

"We don't know, you might," Ratchet said.

"It is more for ensuring our privacy," Optimus said.

I sighed. "Why do I get the feeling, I'm not going to like this conversation?" I muttered to myself. I looked back up to the large mechs from the spot on the desk I was standing. "Ok, shoot, what do you want?"

"My scans have shown that you are malnourished," Ratchet said. "We would like to know why."

"My family was never rich," I said. "We have had many financial struggles. We've been in one of those recently. We can't afford to eat the way that we should. I eat one meal a day, if that, so that our food will last until we can get more. It's how I've lived, I've grown used to it. All our money pretty much goes to keeping the house standing, bills and taxes and what we can put into food we do. In case you're unaware, the government pretty much taxes everything except the air we breathe. Rich people don't care because they can afford it. Us poor people struggle to get by. We don't even have health insurance on the whole family cause we can't afford to. If I get hurt, I gotta deal with it myself or we'll have a debt we'll never be able to pay off. I don't typically get hurt or sick though, so I'm good on that." I tilted my head.

Ratchet looked at me in disbelief. "I doubt that," he said.

"Hey, typically I only get hurt when my brother decides to go hostile on me," I said. "The falling out of the tree was an abnormal occurrence."

Ratchet sighed.

"How hostile can your brother get?" Optimus asked.

I sighed and in response lifted my bangs. I pointed to my right eyebrow. "See that scar? My brother did that," I said and the rolled my sleeve up. "That bruise? Our latest argument, not my falling out of the tree." I rolled up my pants leg. "He did this scar too. In a particular cruel moment."

Both mechs visibly flinched at the Decepticon symbol shaped scar.

"Both scars are from before I finally started standing up for myself," I said, rolling the pants leg down. "For a long time I wouldn't fight back, because he's my brother and family has always been important to me, but after the 'Con symbol I just couldn't do it anymore and snapped. I nearly lost my sanity on that one. Couldn't tell you how I managed to keep it. But ever since, I've defended myself against him and I've also defended others."

I shifted on my feet, not looking at the 'Bots. They were silent and I wondered if they were having a silent conversation. Could they do that in this continuity? I didn't see why not.

**~Third POV~**

Ratchet stared in disbelief at the human femme before him. She had gone through more than anyone should, especially by the hand of their own brother. He had been alarmed when she had started explaining her brother's cruelty in such a calm tone, but he could see the battle waging in her optics. She was hurt, felt betrayed and yet she still held love for her brother.

When she showed them the scar on her leg, he flinched. Not only was it a 'Con insignia, but it also looked as if it had been etched deep into her skin. It was probably very painful. And it clearly hadn't had proper medical attention.

"**Optimus, we can't send her back,"** Ratchet said through the internal comlink. **"We might be sending her to her death if we do."**

"**Agreed, she will need to be kept here,"** Optimus said. **"If that is her wish."**

Ratchet growled mentally. **"I don't care if she called on all of the 'Cons to return home, I won't let her return to that pit hole with her pit spawned brother,"** he said.

"**Is that care that you are showing?"** Optimus asked, sounding almost amused.

Ratchet fought the urge to scoff. **"I merely mean that as her doctor, something she will not have if she returns there,"** he said. **"Someone needs to properly monitor her health."**

"**Let's see what she has to say on the subject,"** Optimus said.

Optimus lowered a little so that he was looking the small femme optic-to-optic. He could see the conflict still going on behind the blue eyes.

"Amelia, I have an offer for you, it is your choice whether you accept," Optimus said.

Amelia looked at the leader of the Autobots with curiosity and hope taking over the emotions floating behind her optics.

"How would you like staying here with us, permanently?" Optimus asked.

She frowned and tilted her head, though her optics shone with happiness at the offer. She appeared to be seriously considering something. Finally, she answered.

"I'd love to!" she said. Then she hesitated. "But, um, would it be too much to ask if I could return home to get my things? When it's possible that is."

"I've come close to finding a way to move between your world and this one," Ratchet said. "It should be ready in a few days."

Amelia nodded in understanding.


	3. First Day part 2

**A/N:** It has come to my attention thanks to one of my reviewers that I got the name of Arcee's partner wrong. It's Tailgate not Trailbreaker. So I will fix that.

Anyway, here is the next chapter! Hope you like it.

**Chapter 3: First Day Part 2**

**~Amelia's POV~**

I found myself staring at the TV and debated what to do for what felt the umpteenth time that day. I still didn't want to play video games. And I actually didn't feel like more exploring at the moment. I was happy, but I was also bored out of my skull. I was just about to give in and play the game when I heard three engines enter the base. I looked up to see three kids getting out or off or their guardians. I recognized them easily from the show, but I had no way of knowing if they knew that I knew their names already.

"Hey, she's awake this time!" Miko, the girl of the trio, said.

"Of course, I'm awake this time," I said, grinning as I walked over to the railing. "I was getting bored too."

"Hey, do you play anything?" Miko asked.

"We haven't even told her our names yet," Jack said. "And you're already asking her if she plays an instrument?"

Obviously he hasn't gotten the memo.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Miko said.

I laughed. "It's ok," I said. "I guess you guys never got the memo about me already knowing your names."

"You do?" Raf asked.

I nodded. "Back in my world this was a TV show," I said. "Jack, Miko and Rafael." I named them, pointing to each one in turn. "And to answer your question, I can sort of play keyboard."

"You should hear her sing," Arcee said as she casually strode off to do whatever.

"You sing?" Raf asked.

"Cool! Can you show us?" Miko asked.

I felt my face blush. "Um," I said. "I guess." I pulled out my iPod and searched through the songs. I found a good one, hit play once one of the ear buds was in my ear and began singing along with it. I was very aware that every Bot was listening as well.

Burn up the interstate got somewhere you need to be

Not gonna let nobody slow you down

Turn off the radio and turn up your telephone

You don't have time to smell the roses now

Oh but take a second maybe before it gets too loud

Breathe before your breath runs out

Don't try so hard to move past the moment

These days go by and they're gone before you know it

So come on open your window let the light shine in

This is life don't miss it

What if you took the time to really suck it in

Cause someday your gonna wish you did

Like a September morning, like snow without a warning

Like how the summer feels upon your skin

But take a minute maybe before the sun goes down

Breathe before your breath runs out

Don't try so hard to move past the moment

These days go by

And they're gone before you know it

So come on open your window let the light shine in

This is life don't miss it

Just take a second maybe before the sun goes down

Breathe before your breath runs out

Don't try so hard to move past the moment

These days go by and they're gone before you know it

So come on open your window let the light shine in

This is life don't miss it

I finished the song and blushed when the kids all applauded.

"Wow! You're amazing," Miko said. "If you wouldn't be leaving, I'd invite you to be in our band."

I grinned then. "Who says I'm leaving?"

Everyone except Ratchet and Optimus looked shocked at my question.

"It has been decided that Amelia will be staying here," Optimus said. "The reasons are her business, do not press her for information."

"No twenty questions," Jack said.

"Gotcha," Miko said.

"Understood," Arcee said, though she looked at me sympathetically. She probably had a good idea from our talk earlier in the day.

Five minutes later we were having a tag team tournament on the videogames. Miko had suggested girl versus boy, but I had adamantly refused to partake of boy versus girl things. So instead, we did geek versus non-geek. I was on a team with Raf while Jack and Miko were on a team.

"You don't like boy versus girl, but you're fine with geek versus non-geek?" Miko asked.

I shrugged. "Boy versus girl stuff gets way too competitive for me," I said. "I've not had that problem with fellow geeks or people playing against geeks unless they were bullies."

The three kids sat on the couch while I pulled over the chair next to the couch and sat cross-legged on it. The game we chose to play was a generic racing game in which you try to bump the other car off the track. I was able to focus on this for maybe three rounds.

"This game is so simple," I said. "How can you guys get so into it?"

"You're not having fun?" Miko asked.

"I'm used to more complex games," I said. "With adventure and puzzles and all sorts of stuff to do. The racing games I'm used are different as well. I'll bring my games back when I go get my stuff."

"Sweet," Jack said.

"You realize, you keep losing on this 'simple' game," Raf said.

"Well, nyah!" I said, sticking my tongue out. "That's because you all have more practice."

The kids all laughed.

**~Aboard the Nemesis, Normal PoV~**

"So, the Autobots have a new human pet," Starscream said, tapping his claws on each other.

The eyes and ears of the Decepticons, Soundwave, nodded. Starscream contemplated this new information. Megatron was still in limbo, so there was nothing stopping him from kidnapping this new human and using her against the Autobots. Of course, they still didn't know the location of the base, so he'd have to wait till they caught her out in the open.

"Keep surveillance up around the town the children live in," Starscream ordered. "I want to know when the girl is ripe for the taking. We will force her to reveal the location of the Autobot base and use her to draw out the Earth's defenders. Dismissed."

Soundwave turned and left the Decepticon air commander to his thoughts.

**~Autobot Base, Amelia's PoV~**

"Ha! I won!" I cheered as I won my first round on the generic racing game.

"You're getting into this 'simple' game an awful lot for someone who doesn't like it," Jack said.

I laughed a little and stuck my tongue out as I felt my face become slightly red.

"Alright, now I think we should have band practice," Miko said.

"But I don't have my keyboard here yet," I said, giving her a puppy dog pout. "Can we wait?"

"Aww, ok," Miko said.

"It's time for the kids to go home, anyway," Arcee said, walking over.

"Aww," Miko said.

"Come on, Raf," Jack said.

"See you guys tomorrow," I said, waving.

"Bye," they all said, waving back before walking down the stairs.

As they all left, I yawned, keeping an eye on an approaching Ratchet.

"You should get some sleep," Ratchet said.

"I plan to," I said. "Just don't sedate me again. I hate sedatives."

"As long as you get restful sleep, I will not sedate you again," Ratchet said.

I felt my eye twitch. "I suppose that is fair enough," I said.

I yawned, stretching my arms over my head as I walked over to the couch. I laid down on it and got comfortable, completely forgetting about the blanket. I was just falling completely asleep when I felt a blanket being draped over me and my bangs being pushed out of my eyes. I sighed and curled up happily.


	4. Trip Home

**Chapter 4: The Trip Home and Friends**

**~Amelia's POV~**

"We are not going to send her through alone," Ratchet told Arcee as I looked back and forth between the two arguing Bots.

"Oh, and who's going to go with her?" Arcee asked. "In case you forgot, we all have a mission to do."

"You do not need me on this mission," Ratchet said. "And Raf is capable of working the ground bridge in my absence."

"Since when do you volunteer to be a human's guardian?" Arcee asked.

Ratchet paused and he glanced at me. I just shrugged and shook my head.

"You know, I'm perfectly capable of handling this myself," I said, though I would prefer if one of them explained the fact that I was leaving to my mother.

"No," Ratchet said. He seemed really adamant about that and I had no clue why. Ratchet had never gotten close to a human before, not in this continuity anyway.

Arcee sighed. "I don't like this," she said. "Last time we left the kids here unattended, they ended up following us into danger."

"Well that's easily solved," I said. "Usually they follow you because of Miko. So if we tie Miko to a chair and weld the chair to the floor, they won't. Or we could go simpler and nicer and have Miko come help me get my stuff."

"No, tie her to the chair, maybe she'll learn something," Arcee said, smirking.

Ratchet sighed. "Do you wish her to go with you?" he asked, looking at me.

"Would be nice to have a fellow human girl backing me up," I said. "And it'd keep her out of trouble."

Sometime later, the Autobots left on their mission and I had Miko beside me, waiting for Ratchet to be ready to go through the ground bridge to my dimension so I could get my stuff. He had to show Raf how to work the special extension device that made it possible for us to go to another world. We had decided what we would tell my family while waiting for time to go, so we had an explanation prepared, I even have it written on paper in a letter to send to my church family.

"Alright, we're ready," Ratchet said, walking over and transforming into his alt mode. He opened his door and I saw his holoform in the driver's seat. "Get in."

Miko and I climbed into his cab and he shut the door as Raf activated the ground bridge. Telling him and Jack to make sure to reopen the ground bridge for us in two hours, Ratchet drove through the ground bridge. We came out in the city park in my hometown. Miko and I talked along the way.

"So, what's your family like?" Miko asked.

"Oh, they're alright," I said, distractedly.

"Ok, so how was your life before you came to our world?" Miko asked.

"I have two siblings, a brother and a sister, my parents are divorced, I have two cats and one dog," I listed off.

"I have two cats back in Tokyo too," Miko said. "They were sweet."

"Yeah, Breeze is a sweetie," I said. "So is Willow, but he's my brother's cat. But Breeze is mine, always has been and always will. When we first got her she was so small she could fit in the palm of my hand, she was the runt of her family. But you can't tell nowadays. She's been a spoiled cat."

"What about Willow?" Miko asked.

"He was a big kitten, though you can't tell these days on him either," I said. "Just as spoiled as Breeze, though he's scrawny. He eats, but he's so scrawny it looks like he doesn't. Except for in the winter, he gets a little fat in the winter cause he doesn't go outside and he eats a lot. My dog, well he's just fat." I laughed a little. "He's a sweet, but scaredy dog. The odds of you getting to pet him are slim, he's scared of strangers, save the occasional one that he tries to bite."

We didn't have time to talk about much other than that, as it wasn't a very long drive. Soon enough we were pulling up in front of my old home. I took a deep breath, playing with my necklace as I do a lot when I'm troubled. I was worried, I had to admit that. I hadn't been here for a week, my mom was likely to drill me for information on where I had been. I didn't even want to think about what my brother may or may not do or say. Even with my worries though, Miko got out of Ratchet and I followed, feeling a sense of protectiveness for her. Over the past week I had become good friends with the three kids and the Autobots. I had wanted her here partially because I knew it would make me braver having someone with me I was close to besides just Ratchet.

"There she is," my mom said as soon as we were in the door and I walked into the living room. "You disappeared without a word, I was about to call and report you missing. You didn't answer your cell either."

I wasn't sure if I should be happy she had faith that I wouldn't get myself into trouble or to be concerned she didn't call the police by now.

"My cell's out of service," I said, showing her it. "And I, um, have a job now." That was the excuse anyway, it was the best we could come up with. "And I needed to go like right away, but I have today off so I can get the stuff I need and stuff. I would've told you before I left if I could've."

"Why couldn't you?" Mom's boyfriend asked.

"Because the job is on a really top secret project thing and they needed someone to do something about something like as soon as possible and if I didn't go right then I wouldn't have gotten and it's a very interesting job and it pays good and um yeah," I said, trying not to sound like I was rambling and coming up with excuses. "I need to get my stuff and then I have to go back."

"You got a job? That's good," Mom said. "So are you like living somewhere they provide or what?"

"Yeah," I said. "Maybe this time things will work out better, neh?"

"Good luck with that," Mom's boyfriend said.

I grinned. "No worries," I said before looking at Mom. "I'll try to come visit when I can."

"That's what your sister says too," Mom said.

"She visits when she can," I said. "You know we both love ya."

"Yeah yeah," Mom said, though I could tell she was joking and she did believe me.

I gave her a hug and then me and Miko went upstairs to pack my stuff while Ratchet spoke with Mom about the 'job' I now have.

"Your mom seems nice," Miko said.

"You say that cause you don't know her," I said. "She is nice enough, but when she's mad, she's kinda scary. She may not be the world's number one mom, but she's a great mom when she wants to be. She is supportive in most things, but we disagree on a number of things. Oh good, my brother's not home, we don't have to worry about him."

We went into my room and began putting all my clothes, which were all clean considering I had just done laundry the other day, into a suitcase I pulled out of the closet in the room next to it. We didn't have to pack my games, because that stuff was already in a box, from where I hadn't taken it out when I had moved back in from the last time I had left home. I also packed my wolf blanket and wolf and fox plushies in a bag with my hair brush, make-up, deodorant and other such things. My laptop went into my laptop bag with its cord and the mouse I had for it. I put my flash drives in it too. I also packed all my music CDs, my jean jacket I got from a very good friend and my scrapbooking supplies.

"So if you're graduated from high school, why aren't you in college?" Miko asked as we packed my stuff.

"I just hadn't started yet," I said. "I was suppose to start soon, but, you know, the whole going to another dimension thing. Maybe I'll go to college there. There's gotta be something I can learn to do that's useful. If not, I'll just stick with becoming a teacher. At least then I won't be sitting around all day doing nothing. I'm also wanting to be a writer."

"I like the writer idea better," Miko said and I rolled my eyes at her.

"Not all teachers are bad guys to their students," I said. "I had some pretty cool teachers when I was in school. I plan on being one of those teachers who is also a friend to their students and makes learning more fun and less work. And there's no law that says I can't do both."

"So you're not gonna be one of those real strict teachers then," Miko said.

"Oh, I'll be strict," I said. "I just will make my classes fun and hope I don't have to be mean, though I likely will need to for some students. Stuff like cheating, bullying and other dishonest or bad behavior won't be tolerated by me, but that doesn't mean my classes won't be fun. The only ones who won't like it will be the ones who bully or cheat. Especially bullies."

"Good," Miko said. "There needs to be a teacher who will do something about bullying."

"Don't I know it," I said, glancing briefly at Ratchet's holoform that was now standing in my room at the edge of the sort of tunnel-like part leading to my door. "Especially in middle school. The worst years of my life."

"Yet you are returning to them?" Miko asked.

"May be returning to them," I said. "I remember what it was like to be a student in those years, a bullied student. I went to the teachers, I had always made friends with my teachers, but not a one ever did anything about it. There is a serious need for teachers who care in the middle school arena." I huffed.

"Tell me about it," Miko said. "So you think you could help students going through a rough time?"

"Of course," I said. "I have an understanding most middle school teachers obviously don't have. I've been there. And I, unlike the callous teachers at my old middle school, care. That makes me the perfect candidate to help students through such a rough patch in their school lives."

"You should pursue that," Ratchet said, making his presence known to Miko, who hadn't noticed him standing there.

I smiled. "I think I just might do that," I said. "I always enjoyed teaching."

"What subject will you teach?" Miko asked.

"Either science or English, whichever I can get a job teaching," I said. "My best and favorite subjects."

"Sweet, so you could help me with my science project," Miko asked.

"I could," I said. "What is your science project?"

"Didn't you already a science project?" Ratchet asked.

"We're all getting a second chance at them," Miko said. "Since _someone_ took them over and we failed."

Ratchet huffed. "On Cybertron you would've gotten the highest honor," he said.

I laughed. "You forget, Ratchet," I said. "Earth is no Cybertron. As advanced as those projects were, they were not projects for an Earth school. Not to mention, if I remember the episode correctly, Raf's Cybertronian 'volcano' blew a hole through the school."

Ratchet actually managed to look sheepish at that.

I turned back to Miko as I carefully placed an item in my bag with my blanket and stuff. "So what's this project of yours?" I asked.

"I'm making a model of the galaxy," Miko said.

"Ooo, going larger than the solar system, huh?" I asked. "I think I can help with that."

"Did you ever make things for science?" Miko asked.

"Um," I said thoughtfully. "I did one year, in elementary I believe. I made a model of the solar system, though it was kinda pathetic. Everything was made out of paper, cause I didn't have good materials to work with. I only got a C."

"That sucks," Miko said. "Why didn't you have better materials?"

"We poor people," I said. "We didn't have the money to get the proper stuff I wanted at the time. So I improvised the best I could." I shrugged. "I don't really mind. That's the only C I've ever gotten in science, all my other grades were As with the occasional B."

"Wow, you're smart," Miko said.

I grinned. "So I've been told," I said. "But I'm not smart in everything. There's lots of stuff I don't know."

"Well, yeah," Miko said. "No one knows everything."

My stuff packed, we carried it all out to Ratchet's alt form and put it in the back. I said my goodbyes to my mom and her boyfriend and then we left. We stopped by the post office and I placed the letters into the mail box. It wasn't long before we were in a currently part of the park and Ratchet was contacting Raf for a bridge back to base. Once there, we got my stuff out of Ratchet and he transformed, picking up a couple of my boxes, leaving Miko and I to get my suitcase and bag. Jack and Raf were nice enough to get my keyboard and take it over to set it up with the stuff Miko had drug here for the band.

Ratchet showed me and Miko to where my room was, it having finally been prepared. It had an Autobot sized door, Ratchet said this was to make sure that if anything happened he or one of the others could come in. I didn't mind. That would make me feel safe. There was a door across the hall from it, but I had no way of knowing whose it was or even if it was occupied without asking and I didn't feel it was that important. I just felt safe knowing I was living on a base with the Autobots.

All in all, it had been a good day. However, I was not prepared for the sight that waited us back in the main area.

"Hey Amelia!"

"Tana?" I asked, shocked to see one of my newer friends from my world standing there.


	5. Band Practice and Game

**A/N:** I am sorry my updates are so long in between these days. Between college and having so many stories going at once it's hard to keep up. But I will try to make it up to you guys come my break time. :)**  
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**Chapter 5: Band Practice and Games**

"Tana? What the heck are you doing here? How'd you get here? What the crap? I thought you were in New Jersey!" I said.

"I heard you disappeared, so I came to find you and then followed you here," Tana said, answering all my question one sentence.

"You're nuts," I said.

"But that's why you love me," Tana said. "Besides you're crazier."

"Excuse me, but who is this again?" Jack asked, pointing at Tana.

"Everybody, meet Tana, an old friend of mine," I said. "Tana, meet everybody. Now seriously Tana, you need to go back home, your parents are probably worried sick."

"Nah, they don't care what I do or where I go," Tana said.

"Now you know that's not true," I said. "They love you and you know it. They're a lot better parents than mine are."

"Can I come visit if I do go home?" Tana asked.

"If it's alright with Optimus," I said, looking to the boss bot.

"As long as it doesn't cause trouble with your parents, it is alright," Optimus said.

"Alright!" Tana cheered.

"Do they even know you aren't in New Jersey anymore?" I asked.

"Uh," Tana said.

I slapped my forehead with the palm of my hand.

"But my trip there is gonna end in a couple days anyway," Tana said. "Can I stay for the day, pleasepleasepleassssee?"

Tana looked between me and the Autobots with a puppy dog pout and she even quivered her bottom lip. I had to look away so that if Optimus said 'no' I wouldn't be tempted to argue. The decision was that Tana would stay today as Ratchet worked on our cell phones so that they worked to communicate with each other between the two worlds so whenever Tana could come visit without causing any problems at her house or anywhere she could contact us and come visit. She was to go back to New Jersey in our world by eight though.

"Alright now to real business," Miko said. "Band practice! First, what songs you know Amelia? Any rock?"

"Christian rock, but yeah I know rock," I said.

"Sweet, let's go practice then," Miko said.

And thus Miko dragged us all off to band practice. Tana just watched, cause she didn't have an instrument and didn't really want to partake right now I guess. At least, that is what I thought was probably the reason why she didn't want to join in. I wasn't for sure though. Miko asked me to play the song for her and the boys to hear so we could all figure out how to play it. I decided that I thought she might like the song Million Voices by BarlowGirl so I had them listen to it. Miko said she loved it while Jack and Raf exchanged a look before agreeing to do the song.

We practiced for hours. But Miko was the kind of person who could make you do a song over and over to get it right and enjoy it. She just had so much energy and it was contagious. At least, to me it was, but Jack looked real tired of going over the song. Raf was enthusiastic, though not nearly as much as Miko was. Me? I was just going with the flow. I seemed to do that a lot when hanging with Miko, Jack and Raf. It wasn't because they never asked me what I wanted to do, just cause I was up to doing almost anything. Just as long as it wasn't anything bad, I was typically fine with it.

"Ok, everybody take five and then we'll play for the Bots!" Miko said after we went through that song and another one that I found that Jack surprisingly liked, and thought it fit me. Miko had agreed when I explained we should be more diverse than just rock, especially considering most of us liked other kinds of music.

"I never thought I'd see you playing in a band, I thought you had stage fright," Tana said as I joined her to the side.

"I do have stage fright," I said. "But it is somehow different since it is the Bots. Plus, Miko's enthusiasm makes it fun, even if she is a little bossy."

"'A little'?" Tana asked, raising her eyebrows at me. I just shrugged.

"It's Miko, she loves her music," I said. "You gotta love her."

"Yeah, I suppose so," Tana said.

A little bit later Miko had come back with all of the Bots, insisting that everyone be the judge of how well we are doing on these two songs. She had been teaching Bulkhead about her form of rock and she loved her guardian, so I was sure she was looking forward to him hearing it. I was nervous because I was basically relying on luck to get the keys right on the keyboard and not mix the two songs up. It didn't help any that I am dyslexic so the odds of me messing up were high, but I had faith. Even if I did mess up, as long as I didn't make it obvious no one would know.

"You ready?" Miko asked of everyone, audience and band players.

"As ready as we'll ever be," Jack said, glancing worriedly at my clearly nervous form. I noted that Ratchet seemed concerned, probably cause my heart rate was up a little.

"Alright! 1, 2, 3, 4!" Miko said and I rolled my eyes at her insistence of starting like rock stars do.

Tell me who'd've thought that we would be so controversial

And stand against the normal

Are we too outspoken

Loud and messing up the comfortable

Well we've been messed up also

How can we be silent when a fire burns inside us

We're a million strong and getting stronger still

They'll remember we were here

With a million voices breaking silence still

They'll remember we were here

We were made to start the riot

Take on the impossible

And we will slay the giant

We are done with fake religion

Fighting now to find the movement

Won't stop till we find it

How can we be silent when a fire burns inside us

We're a million strong and getting stronger still

They'll remember we were here

With a million voices breaking silence still

They'll remember we were here

We're a million strong and getting stronger still

They'll remember we were here

With a million voices breaking silence still

They'll remember we were here

With that song I decided that the only Bot that really liked rock was Bulkhead. The others seemed to think we did well, but they seemed like they didn't really enjoy it. It made me happy that the song Jack wanted us to do wasn't rock and Miko was still fine with doing it. We made a fairly smooth transition into it, though it was something we needed to work on.

Somewhere between the hot and the cold

Somewhere between the new and the old

Somewhere between who I am and who I used to be

Somewhere in the middle you'll find me

Somewhere between the wrong and the right

Somewhere between the darkness and the light

Somewhere between who I was and who you're making me

Somewhere in the middle you'll find me

Just how close can I get lord to my surrender

Without losing all control

Fearless warriors in a picket fence

Reckless abandon wrapped in common sense

Deep water faith in the shallow end

And we are caught in the middle

With eyes wide open to the differences

The god we want and the god who is

But would we trade our dreams for his

Or are we caught in the middle, are we caught in the middle

Somewhere between my heart and my hands

Somewhere between my faith and my plans

Somewhere between the safety of the boat and the crashing waves

Somewhere between a whisper and a roar

Somewhere between the altar and the door

Somewhere between contented peace and always wanting more

Somewhere in the middle you'll find me

Just how close can I get lord to my surrender

Without losing all control

Fearless warriors in a picket fence

Reckless abandon wrapped in common sense

Deep water faith in the shallow end

And we are caught in the middle

With eyes wide open to the differences

The god we want and the god who is

But would we trade our dreams for his

Or are we caught in the middle

Fearless warriors in a picket fence

Reckless abandon wrapped in common sense

Deep water faith in the shallow end

And we are caught in the middle

With eyes wide open to the differences

The god we want and the god who is

But would we trade our dreams for his

Or are we caught in the middle

Lord I feel you in this place

And I know you're by my side

Loving me even on these nights

When I'm caught in the middle, caught in the middle

We finished the song and my mind immediately noted the spots where my voice cracked or I slipped up some on the words. I was not a professional musician, but I did care if I did songs right when it was just for fun. As the others began speaking, I pressed some random keys as I thought. The others were listening, I could tell, but I wasn't really playing anything nor did it really sound like anything. I was just thinking about things.

"Amelia, are you ok?"

The sudden question had me jumping and nearly falling out of my seat. I blinked to find Tana's face not too far from mine.

"I'm fine, just spaced out that's all," I said. "Let's do something else now."

"We should all play a game," Tana suggested. "Humans and Bots."

"We've got better things to do than play games," Ratchet said.

"Pleasssee," I said, looking up at my favorite Autobot with the cutest puppy dog pout I could muster. "It'll be more fun with you guys."

"I'm in," Bulkhead said.

Bee chirped something that sounded like an affirmative.

"I guess I'll play too," Arcee said.

I continued to pout at Ratchet and he seemed really set on not playing at first, but the more I stared at him(and the closer I got to crying from holding such an expression for so long I was actually starting to feel sad at the idea that he wouldn't play with us) he seemed to break. He sighed.

"Fine," Ratchet said. "But I'm not doing anything ridiculous."

"Great! What about you Optimus?" I asked.

"There has been a lull in Decepticon activity," Optimus said. "I suppose I will play with you."

"Yes! And I got the perfect game!" I declared.

Fifteen minutes later we were all huddled around one of the large computers having just finished watching something.

"So we are watching clips of people doing scenes in a hilarious way, because?" Miko asked.

"I want to have a competition," I said. "Pair off and each team does a scene like the ones we just watched and someone will choose who the winner is. Optimus, you can be the judge, I think you should just watch anyway, it'll make you laugh and you need to laugh. Now we need someone to be in charge of sound effects. Raf, since you're good with computers, you can use your laptop for sound effects."

Everyone murmured their agreement, though Ratchet more grumbled than anything. We paired off, the Bots using their holoforms for the game. Surprisingly enough, Bee could talk normally in his holoform, which apparently surprised the Bots as well. I guess Bee had never used his holoform before or he never tried to talk. Tana partnered up with Bee, which wasn't surprising. She was one of few of my friends who knew Transformers anywhere close to how I knew it and she had what one could call an obsession with the yellow bot. Miko went with Bulky and Jack went with Arcee. This left me with Ratchet, who was still grumbling.

"Oh come on, Ratch! It'll be fun! You need some fun in your life," I said.

"Everytime I hear the word 'fun' I expect to see Sideswipe or his brother in my medbay," Ratchet said, raising his holoform's eyebrow at me.

I grinned. "Ah, Sides and Sunny," I said. "Don't worry, it's just acting and I'm not as crazy as them, I swear. Well...maybe a little bit...but I don't do things that could potentially hurt me...'cept sleep in trees, but that's beside the point."

"So what are we going do?" Ratchet sighed, giving in.

"Here, I'll show you," I said. I led Ratchet over to my laptop, which sat on a small table nearby Ratchet's usual work station. I had set up there for those days I just wanted to be away from the other humans. I knew they would come some day, because I often got tired of human company.

"This is what I want to do," I said, showing Ratchet a clip from the show we just watched.

"And what is point of this, exactly?" Ratchet asked.

I peered over and, satisfied that Optimus wouldn't overhear, said, "To get Boss Bot to laugh. I've seen you smirk or smile when something actually goes right for a change, but he never so much as twitches. It's unhealthy I tell you. Laughter is good for the soul...er spark!"

Ratchet shook his head. "So which one do you want me to do?"

"You'll be the one Ryan is," I said. "The tall guy. I'll be the bald guy."

We all spent the next half an hour going over our scenes with Optimus in a different room. Each pair of course had to go over the scenes with Raf so he would know what sound effects to use and when. When the others saw what Ratchet and I were doing I thought they were gonna die of laughter, whether from the fact that all these were funny or the fact that I got Ratchet to agree to doing such a silly act was anybody's guess. Maybe it was a little of both.

"If this doesn't Optimus to at least smile I will resign myself to pranking him until he does," I said. "Which would totally ruin my whole self-rule of not pranking good guys."

"If you don't prank your allies, who do you prank?" Miko asked.

"The bad guys, of course," I said. "It's fun." I grinned.

"I thought you didn't do dangerous things," Ratchet said.

"I don't," I said. "I set up pranks for bad guys in a location I know they will be and by the time they are actually pranked, I'm long gone. No one has ever discovered it was me. Perfectly safe."

Ratchet sighed and shook his head.

A couple minutes later, the two of us hung back while Miko and Bulkhead did their scene. They did the scene of cops and ducks from the show.(author's note: I am just going to put the speech and sound effects on because it's a little difficult for me to explain everything and I'm pressed for time, but I'll give the links to the youtube vids of the scenes that are done at the end of the chapter so you can better understand it)

"These donuts aren't as crispy as they used to be," Bulk said.

Sound effect-smacking lips

"Look I can chew with my mouth open and you don't hear a thing," Miko said.

"Wanna see if there's anything on the radio?" Bulk

"Might as well." Miko

Sound effect-click, static, whoo-whooing noise

"The antenna's not screwed in." Miko

Sound effect-buzzing

"Turn up the volume, would ya?" Miko

"Don't hear a thing." Miko

"Oh well." Bulk

"Hey that guy just went through that light. Hit the siren, I'm chasing after him." Miko

Sound effect- the sound of someone attempting(and failing) to make a siren noise

"Hit it." Miko

"Shut up." Bulk

Sound effect-the sound people make referring to break problems and the whooing sound

"It's one of those silent ones, it, uh, really irritates dogs." Bulk

"We need to get really close for him to hear this, I better gun it." Miko

Sound effect- high pitched whoos

"It's out of gas, let's hoof it." Miko

"It's gonna be dangerous, we better put on our swat gear." Miko

"Ok." Bulk

"I'm just gonna cock my gun."

Sound effect- clicking

"You call that a gun, listen to this." Miko

"It's a silencer." Bulk

"That's no gun, listen to this." Miko

Sound effect- sound of released air, clicking

"Nothing!" Miko

"Ok, I got a feeling there's terrorists behind that door." Bulk

"Well, they're loud terrorists." Miko

"Wouldn't surprise me if it was a very quiet group of a hundred or so." Bulk

"Ok, let's take it easy. Here's what we're gonna do." Miko

"Ok." Bulk

"Let's get this straight. You are gonna kick in the door very loudly." Miko

"Ok!" Bulk

"I'm gonna run in behind ya and make a sound like a duck to confuse them." Miko

"Ok, let me hear the duck just so I know." Bulk

Sound effect- people saying "quack, quack"

"That wasn't just one duck, that was a whole flock!" Miko

"You know what? While you do the duck, I'm going to the elephant." Bulk

Sound effect- the quacking again

"Ok, here's the plan. You kick in the door, I do the duck, you the elephant then we open fire." Miko

"I might do the duck." Bulk

"Alright." Miko

Sound effect- someone saying "bang", quacking

"Oh my eye! It pooped in my eye!" Miko

Sound effect- buzzer

I looked over to where Optimus sat for judging. I could see amusement in his optics, but he still didn't so much as twitch toward a smile. But he was amused that was a start. I wasn't one for comedy, but Whose Line Is It Anyway(A/N: I don't own any of the scenes I am using, they belong to the cast of WLIIA so yeah. Part of why I'm not writing the entire thing out.) was always one that could get me laughing. Next up were Bee and Tana and they did was the one sometimes referred as the sick cat scene. It involved two doctors and a snowy Christmas eve.

"With friends like that, who needs enemies?" Tana

"I like my soup. Want some nuts?" Bee

"Sure!" Tana

Sound effect- squishing sound

"I better not I got a bad nasal problem." Tana

"Hey, is that your beeper?" Tana

Sound effect- "beep, beep"

"Oh, there's an emergency call at the maternity ward. Darn on Christmas Eve of all nights." Bee

"At least it's not across town is it?" Tana

"Across town. We better go now." Bee

"Alright, I'll go with you." Tana

Sound effect- swish sound

"You gonna take a shower first?" Tana

"No, it's been snowing all night, look." Bee

"Ugh. We're gonna have to dig our way out of here." Tana

"Oh you had a shovel in your pocket." Bee

Sound effect- hissing sound

"I'll just use my hands." Bee

Sound effect- double hissing sound

"I make the same noise." Bee

"Hey, why don't we take the mobile snow mobile? We'll get there faster." Tana

"You're right." Bee

"You driving or am I. I've had a little too much." Tana(a/n: too much of what I dunno, but we'll go with eggnog)

"All I've had is soup and nuts." Bee

"Ready." Tana

"Hang on cause this thing gets really loud." Bee

Sound effect- someone trying to make engine noises

"Wow, snow mobile with gears." Tana

"It's the new thing." Bee

Sound effect- whooshing noise

"Oh, look I had my noises of Christmas tape in." Bee

"It's actually quite quiet once you get going." Tana

"Yes it is. Oh look I'm about to hit that tree!" Bee

Sound effect- someone making a brake noise

"Wow you made a patch back there! How do you do that on a snow mobile?" Tana

"You know anything about fixing engines?" Bee

"No. Nothing. Wait a minute, these snow shoes. We can put those on and get across town." Tana

"I forgot I packed them, because it's Christmas." Bee

"You're loopy and super nuts." Tana

"I am!" Bee

Sound effect- squishing noises

"Huh! This is the world of one sound." Tana(note, the particular sound effects in this one so far do all sound the same)

"Look. We're on a big hill here. Maybe we should ski down." Bee

"That's a good idea." Tana

"We don't have skiis. Why don't I just cut down this tree with my pocket axe?" Bee

Sound effect- "quack, quack"

"It's the new tree whacker!" Bee

"Well, whack it again!" Tana

Sound effect- "quack, quack"

"Funny how they just stick to your feet." Bee

"Yes. You ready to go." Tana

"Yes." Bee

"While we're skiing down there, I'm gonna fire this gun just to get a different sound." Tana

"Alright." Bee

Sound effect- "tshu"

"I'm not stopping." Bee

"Stop, try to stop!" Tana

Sound effect- swoosh sound(?)

"Oh, that's what I was looking for. Ok, let's go in. Watch out for that ambulance." Tana

Sound effect- whooing noise and a noise that sounds like a sick cat

"Was that two chipmunks driving?" Tana

"They were! And they were carrying one sick cat." Bee

Sound effect- buzzing

Alright, we almost got a smile from Optimus, but not quite. Next up were Jack and Arcee, neither of which really looked like they actually wanted to do this. They did the Batman scene.(I'm not gonna go through this one as I am sick and really not up to it. Instead just watch the clip and imagine Arcee as the short one and Jack as the tall one). Last was Ratchet and myself. We did the scene known as ka-boom or the assault on the death star.(as I said, I'm sick and am not up to going through the process of picking out the words, sounds and who says what again right now and I'm trying to get this update done so yeah, in this one, Amelia is the short one and Ratchet is the tall one).

Once we were all done, Optimus finally cracked a smile and I broke into a cheer that 'Boss Bot' smiled. This had him shaking his head, though he was still smiling.

"Ha! No one can keep a straight face while watching scenes from Whose Line?" I cheered. "Not even me back when I didn't have much fun."

We spent the rest of the day each doing our own thing. Tana and I hung out, exploring my new home. Miko, Jack and Raf played video games. Optimus did who knows what, Bulky and Bee played a game of lobbing which is a Cybertronian sport, and Arcee helped Ratchet monitors the computers as he worked on Tana's and my cell phones. All in all, it was a pretty memorable day.

Whose Line Scenes Used-

Miko and Bulk's scene - .com/watch?v=Vo3VugGvW80&feature=related

Tana and Bee's scene - .com/watch?v=pE_yVzWE07c&feature=related

Jack and Arcee's scene - .com/watch?v=N-fRDG_yzlY&feature=related

Amelia and Ratchet's scene - .com/watch?v=B4blSNuXhGY&feature=related


	6. Smells Like Trouble

**Chapter 6: Smells Like Trouble**

**~Aboard the Nemesis, Normal PoV~**

"Megatron's body may be in lock down, but his mind is still percolating," Knock Out told Starscream.

"Don't say that! He could be listening, the eyes and ears of the Decepticons," Starscream said.

"Ah, yes, Soundwave," Knock Out said. "He sees and hears everything. I recall you requested to know when the Autobot's new human was out and about?"

"She is, is she?" Starscream asked. "Would you care to fetch her for me?"

"As you wish, Lord Starscream," Knock Out said, bowing as he backed out of the medbay.

Starscream preened a little at the title. All that he needed to do was to convince Soundwave that it was the best thing to do to terminate Megatron's life force. He had the only shard of Dark Energon in existence on Earth and without it, Megatron would never wake up from his slumber. And he was the only one who knew of it.

**~Jasper, Nevada, Amelia's PoV~**

"Why?" I asked.

"Oh come on! You'll love it! Stop being such a baby!" Miko said from her spot in Bulkhead's driver's seat. She and Bulk were bringing me to a rock concert, a non-Christian rock concert.

"I don't enjoy non-Christian music," I said. "Quite frankly a lot of it gives me the goosebumps."

"How can you get goosebumps from music?" Miko asked. "You'll be fine."

I gave Miko a withering look from my spot in Bulkhead's passenger seat.

"You spend too much around the doc bot," Bulkhead said. "You give the same looks."

"Oh shut up," I said. "Why are you forcing me to come with you again? I thought this was your guys' thing."

"It is, but you need to get out more," Miko said. "And let's face it, the odds of getting Ratchet away from base for anything besides a mission are slim."

"Yeah, well, I smell trouble," I said.

"How can you smell trouble?" Bulkhead asked.

"Your windows are down and we just passed some people with alcohol," I said. "If I smell that, I smell trouble. Wherever that stuff's around, there is bound to be trouble." When I was with my church family I would jump into other people's trouble without a second thought, but I was still unsure about doing such things on my own.

"Don't worry, we won't be anywhere near that stuff," Miko said.

"Meh, I still don't want to be here," I said.

"Come on! Lighten up," Miko said.

"Um, no thanks," I said, still pouting. "Next time you have the urge to get me out of the base, I'm choosing where we go."

"Alright, alright," Miko said. "You can choose where we go after the concert."

"After the concert? Won't it be late?" I asked.

"Yeah, but we usually go to the after party," Miko said. "This time, if you want to go somewhere else, we will."

"What if I'm tired and want to go home?" I asked.

"Sure," Miko said.

"You shouldn't be going to the after party! Bulkhead what're you thinking taking Miko to the after party!" I demanded.

"Lighten up, Amelia," Bulkhead said. "It's just a party."

"With alcohol and other bad things no doubt," I said. "Do you realize how many bad things could happen to Miko? Wait no sorry, I'm going to back off here, because Miko probably doesn't care for my butting in. Nevermind the fact that I'm saying this cause she's my friend and I don't want anything bad to happen to her."

"You're starting to sound like my mom," Miko said angrily.

"Well, you're my friend," I said, looking at Miko seriously. "I am extremely protective of friends, to the point where I would jump in front of a bullet to keep you safe or do something extremely stupid. You know I don't usually nag you about anything, but those after parties are not good places to go. I couldn't even tell you the number of things that could go bad."

"Don't worry, Amelia," Bulkhead said. "I got safety covered."

"Yeah, I know," I said. "But I still worry. I can't help it, I'm a worry wort. I know it drives some of my friends crazy, but it's me. I suppose part of it is because I'm used to having friends who put themselves in danger a lot. My church family is always jumping into other people's stuff and sometimes that can get quite dangerous."

"Don't worry, I don't hold it against you," Miko said. "Just try to tone it down."

"Alright, alright," I said. "I will try not to sound like your mother."

"Good," Miko said.

There was silence for a moment.

"Wait," Miko said. "Your church family?"

"Yeah," I said. "We go out to the streets to give people hope and help them. We go to the darkest places and give out food and share Jesus with all kinds of people. I guarantee to you that my church family would sooner share Jesus with a Decepticon than shoot them, given the 'Con doesn't try to harm them. We all do know how and will defend ourselves, as well as each other."

"I've not heard of that before," Miko said.

"A lot of churches won't do that," I said. "It's part of what made mine so special. I loved it."

"It sounds fun," Miko said. "Except, I don't think there's much hope for the 'Cons."

"You never know," I shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe someday a 'Con will deviate from Megatron's path. But I'd have to see some serious proof to believe it."

"I'm with Miko," Bulkhead said. "Once a 'Con, always a 'Con."

"Going by that logic, I should still be the jerk I was back in fifth grade," I said. "Nothing's impossible, Bulk. I'm a perfect example of that. Chances are slim, I admit, but not impossible."

We pulled into a parking space and Bulk activated his holoform before we all jump out of his alt. Bulkhead's holoform was a well built military type looking guy and I had a feeling people would twice before messing with him. It kinda made me feel safer knowing how intimidating he looked. I was still nervous though. The alcohol wasn't the only thing I was smelling and I could see a security guard confiscating something from someone and knew some people at least tried to get drugs into the concert. That was another thing I didn't like about secular music concerts. You never knew what people could bring, and even if you know, it's not very comforting if you're surrounded by millions of people.

I cringed as someone walked by who reeked of drugs and alcohol and was stumbling around, clearly intoxicated.

"And that is why you should never, ever, drink," I told Miko as the man nearly caused a wreck. "That, among many other reasons."

"Ew, he smelled gross," Miko said.

"Now you know what trouble smells like," I said. "Can we please leave?"

"After the concert, ok?" Miko said.

"Can I stay here then?" I asked. "And sit in the safe confines of Bulk's vehicle mode?"

Miko stared at me for a moment before a look of dawning realization spread across her face.

"You're scared," she said.

"Honestly? Yes," I said. "I've never been around these kinds of people without my church family or without being at school. And at school those people were sober and not high because they weren't allowed to be otherwise at the school. So, yes, I am scared. I hate crowds of people. Of any kind. If it was a crowd of a bunch of Autobots I don't know, I'd feel the same way."

"Come on, Amelia!" Miko said. "Bulkhead won't let anything happen to us!"

"Yeah, there's nothing to worry about," Bulkhead assured me. "I'd offline myself before I let anything happen to you or Miko."

"I know, Bulk," I said. "But I'm just not comfortable with it. I don't like secular music, it puts me on edge and gives me goosebumps. Add crowds of people into that, you get nervousness. Add the fact that some of these people are drunk and/or high and the lack of my church family and you got one freaked out me. You guys can go ahead in, I'll be fine here."

Finally, I got my wish as Bulkhead opened his door and Miko sighed. I climbed in as Miko lamented that she had wanted me to enjoy myself. I apologized to her, knowing my fear was a little irrational and wishing I could get over it enough to go in with them, if for no other reason than to help Bulkhead protect Miko. But Miko and Bulkhead did this together all the time, I knew they'd be alright. And this was one of those times where my stupid sense of self-preservation actually existed.

As much as I hated it, I did have that sense and it would come around whenever there were enough things that scared me around at one time and no one there to help me through it that my psyche listened to. So far only two of the Autobots would've be able to defer the fears enough that the self-preservation wouldn't have kicked in.

Don't get me wrong. I trusted Bulkhead with my life, as well as Miko's. But he just wasn't one of those who could dispel my fears, not yet at least. I was closest to Ratchet and Optimus and being around them could easily chase away fears I have. Bee was close to being that way, but Bulkhead and Arcee weren't yet.

So as Miko and Bulk's holoform went to go into the concert, I sat in Bulkhead's silent vehicle mode. The doors were locked and the windows tinted so no one would I was in here unless they saw me get in and not get out. I had brought a blanket with me, knowing I'd at least need it on the way home, so I wrapped myself up in it and went to sleep in Bulkhead's backseat. I felt bad for not going in with them, after all, they had worked so hard to drag me here. Darn my irrational fears, even if they did make sense looking at it from some points of view.

**~Hours Later~**

"Hmm, much better," I said as we stood by Bulkhead's alt on the side of a street.

"How is this better than the concert?" Miko asked. "That guy over there has been glaring at us for the past five minutes."

"He just needs Jesus," I said, handing another kid some pizza.

"How come you're so calm?" Miko asked. "It's scarier here than at the concert."

"I'm in outreach mode," I said. "When I am out helping people all sense of self-preservation disappears. There were just too many things at the concert that scared me for me to be calm like this."

"You're weird," Miko said.

"I know I am," I said, grinning at her.

Miko gave me a look before smiling and shaking her head. She then began helping me pass out food to people on the street as I also shared Jesus with some people. She had actually been the one to suggest doing this, in an attempt to find something that we could do together, and I had jumped at the idea. I was always willing to take some hope to people.

We were just about to pack it up and leave when I looked over to see the guy still glaring at us. He was the only one left on the street as everyone else left. I frowned and looked between the remaining pizza and the man before smiling and boldly walking over. I handed the glaring man the pizza.

"Jesus loves you," I said as the man took the pizza. I saw some amount of joy and gratefulness in his eyes and his glare was replaced by one of suspicion. I turned to go.

"Thank you," the man said, causing me to pause and turn back enough to see him.

"Don't thank me, I'm just the messenger," I said. "Thank Jesus, He'll give you everything you need. He gave me what I need."

He nodded and then I started walking back over to my friends. I was about half way there when a loud engine roared and I looked to see a red vehicle zooming down the road straight. I immediately back pedaled as fast as I could. A hand pulled me back the rest of the way just in time for the car to miss me.

"That's way beyond the speed limit you idiot!" the man yelled at the car. "Did you get the license plate number?" I shook my head, staring after the car.

"Amelia!" Miko called.

"I'm ok!" I called back across the street, still watching the speeding red car. It came to a sudden stop and turned around. "Oh slag, I don't think that was an accident."

"What do you mean? He's not trying to kill you, is he?" the man asked, pulling to my feet.

"Tried to run me over, didn't he?" I asked giving the man a look. He looked oddly familiar. Like someone I saw on a TV show or something.

"Miko, Amelia, you guys have to get out of here," Bulkhead suddenly said.

"What?" I asked, my head snapping to where Miko and Bulkhead were standing. My gaze traveled back to the car, which suddenly transformed. "Oh slag."

"What the hell?" the man asked.

"Miko! Get over here!" I called as Bulkhead transformed.

"What does Knock Out want?" she asked as soon as she reached me and the stranger.

"Who knows? But whatever it is can't be good," I said. "Let's go, before we get in the way."

"Follow me," the man said.

"Why should we trust you?" Miko asked.

"Shut up and come on, Miko," I said. "This isn't the time. First we gotta move! Eep!" I suddenly found myself lifted in a giant servo. "Let me go you crazy Con!"

"Amelia!" Miko called.

"Ah, my prize," Knock Out said, before ducking under a punch from Bulkhead and transforming around me and speeding off.

"Let me out! You fraggin aft head!" I yelled, kicking his dashboard.

Knock Out growled, his seatbelt wrapping around me and squeezed tight, preventing me from moving my arms. I felt the panic in me rise and I struggled to free myself. I continued kicking his dash before a mechanical arm thing appeared and sprayed some stuff in my face. It wasn't long before I found myself unwillingly falling into a slumber.

**~Normal PoV~**

"Amelia!" Miko said. "Bulkhead! Do something!"

"Way ahead of you," Bulkhead said, running after the Con, firing his cannon.

Knock Out swerved, avoiding each blast. Bulkhead continued to follow until Breakdown suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Not today, Bulky," Breakdown said.

"Breakdown!" Miko said.

"Would someone tell me what's going on?" the man asked.

"Not now! It's kinda crazy right now!" Miko said, watching as Bulkhead battled it out with Breakdown. "Beat him into scrap, Bulk!"

However, it wasn't long before Breakdown fled as well. Clearly he only wanted to distract Bulkhead long enough to allow Knock Out to get away with the girl.

"Slag," Bulkhead said. He activated his com. "Bulkhead to base, we need a bridge."

"They got away," Miko said with realization. "They got away with Amelia. Scrap."


	7. A Strange Alliance Begins

**A/N:** Another chapter already! Haha! Unfortunately I start school back on Tuesday, so I dunno if I will have updates for my other stories up before then or not. There's kind of an unexpected twist to the story in this chapter, but it was inspired by the latest episode where Starscream almost switched sides to the Autobots. Darn it Arcee, why must you be obsessed with revenge? I am leading up to something with this unexpected twist, but you'll just have to figure it out yourself or wait and see. :)**  
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**Chapter 7: A Strange Alliance Begins**

**~Autobot Base, Normal PoV~**

To say Ratchet was furious would be an understatement.

First Bulkhead and Miko drag the newest human member of the team to a concert she did not want to go to, then they go to a dangerous neighborhood and then they allow her to be captured by the Cons.

Of course, Ratchet knew it was not entirely their fault. No one had even known the Cons knew about Amelia's existence in this world. He hadn't even thought that _this_ could've happened.

And on top of it all, they had another two humans on base. One had seen the kidnapping and the other had shown up just before the ground bridge had been activated. Both were currently watching as he worked to locate the Decepticons.

"Any luck finding the Decepticons, Ratchet?" Optimus asked, walking over to his medical officer.

"No," Ratchet growled. "This blasted Earth tech is inadequate. If we had Teletran 1 we could've located where they have taken by now."

"We'll get her back, my friend," Optimus said, placing a hand on his medic's shoulder.

"Geez, why have you got your gears all in a bind, Ratch?" Miko asked, joining the two new humans. "It's not like you to care so much about a human."

"Contrary to your belief, I do care about your safety," Ratchet said. "And Amelia is anything but safe as long as she is in Decepticon hands." He turned and leveled a glare at the girl. "If you had not dragged her to that concert, this would not have happened. And what were you thinking going onto a dangerous street after dark?"

"Hey, don't pin this on me!" Miko said. "How were we suppose to know the Cons were after her?"

"Why were they after her?" Jack asked, having joined the group in the middle of Ratchet's tirade. He nodded a greeting to the two new humans, who were listening to the banter and conversation.

"I don't know," Ratchet sighed, turning back to his search. "But whatever Starscream is up to, I hope we can get Amelia back before she is harmed."

"Knowing Amelia, she's probably giving them a hard time," Miko said, crossing her arms and smirking. "She's tough."

"She is a stubborn human, that's for sure," Ratchet agreed. "But we still need to find her as soon as possible."

"Agreed," Optimus said. "Keep searching and let us know immediately when you find something."

Ratchet nodded and continued his search determindedly.

"He certainly is worked up," the younger of the two new humans stated as the group of humans walked away from the medic.

"Ratchet cares a lot about Amelia," Miko said. "He won't admit it, but he does. If she's not returned, he may just offline Bulkhead for losing her."

"But they're robots, they don't have feelings," the older man said.

"They're not robots," Jack said. "They're autonomous robotic organisms from the planet of Cybertron. They have feelings just like we do. They can die just like we can."

"And Bulkhead can rock just like we can," Miko said excitedly, doing an air guitar.

"Miko," Jack said.

"What?" Miko asked and Jack just shook his head.

"Point is, they're living sentient beings just like we are," Jack told the two new humans. "These are the Autobots, they're the good guys. They fight to protect us humans. The others, the Decepticons, well, they're the bad guys. They're only here for trouble."

"Yeah, but they're no match for our Bots!" Miko said. "We'll get Amelia back no problem!"

"I just wish we knew why they wanted her," Jack said. "They shouldn't even know about her, that was the first time she has left base. I don't think it was a coincidence Knock Out was there or that he took her when he could just as easily have taken Miko, who is a known ally of the Bots."

"Yeah, something doesn't add up," Miko said. "Maybe we should go investigate!"

"Miko," Jack said, exasperatedly.

The two new humans just looked at each other before deciding that they had landed in a strange place.

"Hmm, that's odd," Ratchet said. "Optimus, I'm picking up a distress signal from an Autobot ship."

"Where is it?" Optimus said.

"Not too far from the sight of our battle with Megatron's zombie army," Ratchet said.

"I can't believe they fought zombies and I missed it," Miko pouted from her spot with the other humans as Raf walked up, having just arrived with Bumblebee.

"Have they found Amelia yet?" Raf asked, looking between the gathered humans.

"Not yet," Jack said and Raf looked really worried. "Don't worry though, kiddo, she'll be back before you know it."

"I hope she'll be alright," Raf said. He had grown to like the girl, she played with him and Bee all the time and she listened to him just as much as Bee did.

"Don't worry, Raf," Miko said cheerfully. "Amelia's tough! I bet those 'Cons are already regretting kidnapping her!"

"Raf, can you monitor the computer and continue the search for Amelia while I go with Optimus to check out a crashed Autobot ship?" Ratchet said, walking over.

"Sure," Raf said. "I can do that."

**~Aboard the Nemesis, Normal PoV~**

Starscream glared at the small human male who stood on his desk in his quarters. How the puny human got aboard the Nemesis, he still did not know, but he was starting to get on his nerves with his Megatron-like behavior. The boy was arrogant and thought he could get anything he wanted. He also looked down on Starscream. It was getting annoying.

"Ok, boy, Knock Out is getting the girl," Starscream said. "Now tell me what you know about the Autobots."

"I don't deal with second in commands," the boy growled. "I will talk with Megatron, no one else."

Starscream growled. "Megatron is no longer operational!" he snapped. "I am the leader now."

The boy scoffed. "Leader of what? The loser parade?"

Starscream growled. "Watch it, fleshing," he said dangerously. "We made a deal."

"Well, if I can't talk to Megatron, then the deal is off," the boy said. He turned around, lifting his wrist and pressing a button on a device on it. He disappeared just before the door opened and Knock Out walked in with the girl in his servo.

Starscream growled in frustration. No matter. He'd just get the information from the Autobot's newest pet.

**~Amelia's PoV~**

"I won't tell you anything Starscream," I said. "And there is nothing you can do or say to make me change my mind. After surviving my brother, I can handle anything you can do."

"What if I told you I could wipe away your family?" Starscream asked.

"That is impossible," I said. "My family is not in this world." Shock registered on Starscream's face and I smirked.

"That's right Screamer, you don't have anything you can hold over me," I said.

Starscream growled and grabbed into his clawed hand and squeezed a little. "Tell me where the Autobots reside!" he demanded. "Or I will end your existence."

I yawned. "Is that all you got?" I asked.

Starscream growled, clearly agitated. "Why aren't you scared?" he asked.

"Hm, after dealing with my brother all my life, not much can scare me," I said, looking at Starscream with a bored expression. I was actually scared, I just wasn't showing it. I tilted my head. "You know, I really feel sorry for you, having to deal with Megatron for so long. I know how that feels, kinda. My brother treated me the same."

Understanding seemed to flash in Starscream's optics along with annoyance. "I don't need your pity, human," he snarled.

"It's not pity, I'm just saying I understand," I said. "Now if all you're gonna do is ask me questions I won't answer either kill me and or let me go. I'm bored."

"Why you," Starscream growled. "You're an annoying brat."

I smirked. "I can be," I said. "I could also be a 'Cons worst nightmare if I felt like it."

Starscream seemed to consider me for a moment. "You may have your uses, even if you won't spill about the Autobots," he said.

"Oh really?" I asked in my most annoying voice I could muster.

"Yes, really," Starscream said, moving his claw to where I sat in his palm. I would've jumped out of it if it weren't so high up. He lifted his other hand and a claw gently lifted up my pants leg to reveal my 'Con symbol scar. "You bear the mark of the Decepticons. You could be passed off as one of us."

"I sense a plan to be rid of Megatron in that processor of yours," I said, watching as Starscream smirked. "As much as I hate the idea of working with a 'Con. I'm finding I might be willing to help with that."

Starscream chuckled and it was kinda creepy, but it wasn't entirely creepy as it more reminded me of when I laughed a little creepily when plotting a fun prank. I was glad we were alone in here, because this plan whatever it is probably wouldn't work otherwise.

"So, what's the plan?" I asked, feeling the mischievousness flashing in my eyes.

"First off, we need to get rid of that Autobot insignia you wear," Starscream said.

I frowned. "I'm keeping it," I said. "I am not switching sides, though if you ever feel like you want to, just let me know, I'll help with that. Just saying. I'll stick it in my pocket." I reached around my neck and unclipped the clasp and took my necklace off before securing it in my pocket.

"Fair enough," Starscream said, seemingly ignoring my suggestion to him about him switching sides. I only said something because I remember he did so in one continuity and I had heard he may have in one of the newer episodes. "Now, we'll need to convince Soundwave you are on our side."

"I ain't killing nobody," I said flatly.

Starscream chuckled. "There will be no need," he said. "You just gotta know the right words to say."

"You mean lie," I said, crossing my arms. "Sorry, goes against my morals. You'd have to do the lying. My conscious won't allow me. I can barely lie about something stupid and then it's obvious I lied."

"You really are fit to be an Autobot," Starscream sneered.

"That's not a bad thing," I said. "The Autobots don't beat me up like Megatron does you or my brother did me before I started standing up to him."

"Hmph," Starscream said, seemingly giving me a point there. "I'll do the lying then. After we have Soundwave believing you are one of us, you will help me convince him that the best thing to do for Megatron is to offline him."

I tilted my head and pursed my lips. "What's wrong with Megatron?"

"He's in stasis lock and will never wake up without a shard of dark energon," Starscream said.

"Oooh, hey I think I remember something about that from the show," I said. "Something about zombies, I think."

"Indeed," Starscream said, smirking. "I have no need to explain then."

"Yeah, I know all about that creepy stuff, please do not explain," I said. "Not even my scientifically curious half wants to know more than I already do about that stuff."

Starscream chuckled as he began to walk toward the door. He placed me on his shoulder and I had to situate myself so I wouldn't fall. "You're a scientist," he stated.

"Indeed," I said. "But that is irrelevant."

"You're right," Starscream agreed. "Now let's go convince Soundwave you are one of us."

"Ok, I will remain silent so as not to blow it," I said.

Approximately ten minutes later, Starscream had spent several of those minutes talking to Soundwave. It was impossible to tell if Soundwave believed Starscream, even after showing the third in command my Decepticon insignia scar. Turns out though, that he could pick up my insignia in my pocket and pointed directly at it.

"It's not mine," I said, a little too fast. "Ok, it is. But it's um old and I was um..." I looked to Starscream for help and I could see the mental optic roll.

"What the femme is trying to say is that she had worn it so as to trick the Autobots into trusting her," Starscream told Soundwave.

"This is true," I said. "I was..spying! Yeah that's it! I was spying for you guys."

"Soundwave, requires proof," Soundwave said. "Where is the Autobot base?"

"Um, I don't really know," I said, which was sorta true. "I only ever traveled through the Ground Bridge." I tried to think of something I knew that could be semi-useful, but not something that would tragically hurt the Bots. I couldn't think of anything. "It's deserty though. I could tell that from the smell."

"Human girl, will prove her loyalty," Soundwave said, and I held back a swallow. I shifted ever so slightly on Starscream's shoulder to indicate my worry though.

"Ah, yes, that would be something important, wouldn't it?" Starscream said. "There is an energon deposit recently picked up in Australia. We will go harvest some energon. Would that be enough to you Soundwave?"

"It is a start," Soundwave said. He left us alone.

"A start he says," I said, exasperation in my voice.

"Quiet, human," Starscream warned. "He could still be listening."

I immediately shut up and road on Starscream's shoulder to the outside of the ship. He placed me on the ground and transformed, opening his cockpit and I climbed in. This was going to be a long trip. Why couldn't Miko have just let me stay at base? This was the last thing I wanted, but if it kept me from torture, I'd take it. At least I wasn't being forced to do something Decepticon-y or against the Autobots. Well, I suppose trying to trick Soundwave into believing I was on their side was a little Decepticon-y. But what the hey? I may be able to get some of that energon to the Autobots. And Starscream better not complain if I do, because I am helping him.

"There's one thing I don't get, human," Starscream said as we flew.

"I have a name," I said. "I'm Amelia."

"Whatever," Starscream said. "Why did you bring up the idea of my switching sides?"

I shrugged. "Believe it or not, you switched sides in a continuity of the show where I come from," I said. "I never saw it, but you did. And I always thought there was hope for you. I kinda find you interesting. I don't want to see you remain a Con."

"Why would I want to be something else?" Starscream asked. "Especially an Autobot."

"Well, you would have a much better life," I said. "You could also just go neutral. Think about it. You wouldn't be beat within an inch of your life anymore. You wouldn't have to fear for your life if Megatron caught you plotting against him. You could be _free._" I emphasized the word 'free', because I knew that despite being a Con, the seeker did like freedom.

"You have some valid points," Starscream said. Then his engine roared angrily. "But that doesn't mean I will, you human brat!"

I laughed at him, which only irked him more. "I was just putting it out there," I said. "Now let's hurry up. I want to get back to the Bots as soon as possible, which means helping rid you of Megatron as quickly as possible."

"What's so great about the Autobots?" Starscream asked.

"Are you kidding? They're like family," I said. "They saved me from my own crappy situation."

"This brother of yours?" Starscream asked.

I nodded. "Yes," I said.

"Interesting," Starscream said.


	8. More Questions Than Answers

**Chapter 8: More Questions Than Answers**

**~Over Australia, Amelia's PoV~**

I peered out of Starscream's cockpit at the expanse of desert below us. "Middle of nowhere, go figure," I said.

"Away from prying eyes," Starscream said. "You know how quickly the Autobots would be here if we were seen?"

"Yeah, yeah," I said. "But you know, I could really use some food, we've been flying for two entire days! I'm starving!"

Starscream sighed. "Alright, but we need to be quick about it," he said. "If Soundwave finds out we dilly dally, it may ruin our plan."

"Soundwave can kiss my butt if he expects me to starve to death," I said. "Ratchet gets onto me enough about my eating habits, thank you."

Starscream chuckled. "I take it your eating habits do not please him," he said.

I laughed. "No, no they don't," I said. "I have a habit of skipping breakfast and I rarely eat dinner unless he reminds me. Old habits die hard."

Starscream landed just outside of sight of what appeared to be a restraunt of some kind. It was kinda out in the middle of nowhere so I wasn't entirely sure, but Starscream said it would do for our purpose. I prayed that that didn't mean that the food was unsanitary or inedible. Even as I climbed out of his alt form and carefully slid to the ground, I worried that I wasn't going to like his choice of place to stop.

I walked out of the outcropping of rocks to see that the building was at least the distance of a block if not more. It wouldn't take too long to get over there. At least I didn't think it would, however when I reached the restraunt I realized it had taken me about fifteen minutes to reach it. I grumbled under my breath about jets that didn't know how to park close. If he complained, I was seriously contemplating playing a prank on him.

"Excuse me, but could you tell me where I am?" I heard a voice ask as I entered the restraunt.

I glanced over to see a teenage boy with a couple other younger boys with him. Something about them looked really familiar. As if I had seen them from somewhere before. Another thing I noticed was they looked similar to that guy who had seen just before Knock Out had kidnapped me. Possibly, his kids? But then what are they doing in Australia?

"You're in Australia, mate," the person the oldest was talking to said.

"Australia?" the youngest asked.

"Alright, thanks," the oldest said. He sighed and led his younger siblings away.

"What do we do now?" the middle child asked. "We need to find Dad."

"Um, excuse me," I said, walking up to the three. "I hear you three are having some trouble."

"Yes! An American ascent!" the youngest said, causing me to laugh.

"Yes," I said, shaking my head. "So what's your problem?"

"We're lost," the oldest said. "Who are you?"

"Name's Amelia," I said. "Who are you?"

"I'm Hal and these are my brothers, Ben and Matt," the oldest introduced them, indicating the middle child as Ben and the youngest as Matt.

"We need to find our dad," Ben said.

"Does your dad happen to look like an older version of him?" I asked, looking at the younger siblings and pointing to Hal.

"That's him! Have you seen him?" Matt asked excitedly.

I nodded. "Yeah, I did," I said. "Over in the US. Don't worry, we'll find a way to get you there. Hey, I got an idea, don't go anywhere, ok?"

"Ok..."

The words were barely out of Ben's mouth when I took off. I ran as fast as I could through the desert toward where Starscream was hiding. I found him in his bipedal mode, glaring at some unknown rock and mumbling something about Megatron and stupid fleshies. I tilted my head at his apparent ire before shaking it and focusing on my current task.

"Hey Screamer!" I said, startling him out of his mumblings.

"Oh Amelia, there's been a change in plans," Starscream said.

"Huh?" I asked. "What? Why? Did Soundwave discover us?"

"No," Starscream said. "Megatron has...ah...made a miraculous recovery."

"Hm, why did I not see this coming?" I wondered aloud.

"Point is, I am not going to risk your health by taking you back to the Nemesis," Starscream said.

"What? You actually care?" I asked.

Starscream growled. "I do not care! I just don't want to get beaten by Megatron for working with a human," he said harshly.

"That's not what you said the first time," I said in a sing song voice.

Starscream growled. He tossed me an object and I caught it. "There's your phone, call your Autobot friends and go home," he said. "Now go!" Without another word, he transformed and flew off.

"Talk about rude," I said. I shrugged. "Oh well, this works. After all, their dad has probably gone to base."

I rushed back to the restraunt, where I found the three boys waiting outside as I had asked them to. I motioned for them to follow me and they did, though Ben asked where we were going. I just shushed him until I found a nice and secluded spot.

"Ok, I got a way for us to get to the US and you three to your dad, but you gotta trust me, ok?" I said. "And you also got to promise not to freak out." I eyed Hal's clearly military gun a wary look.

"Don't worry, we promise," Hal said, making sure to indicate he had no intentions to reach for the gun strapped to his back.

"But why would we freak out?" Matt asked.

I gave a look that said 'if only you knew'. "It is a long story kid," I said. "But you will see." I pulled out my phone and scrolled through the contact list. I found the number for the base and chose to call it, putting it on speaker, making sure the others knew it was on speaker.

"Amelia? Is that you?" Ratchet's voice came through.

"Hey Ratch! Long time no see!" I said.

"Where are you? Are you ok?" Ratchet asked.

I ignored the strange looks the three boys were giving me. "Relax Ratch, I'm away from the Cons, though I am in Australia now."

"Australia!" Miko's voice came through. "What are you doing way over there? Say hi to Japan for me!"

I laughed. Miko definitely one of a kind. "Long story, tell you later, when I'm not talking through a possibly bugged phone," I said. "Might I request a bridge?"

"Already on it," Ratchet said. "If you got yourself hurt..."

"Geez, Ratchet, I feel so loved," I said, rolling my eyes and mouthing to the boys that he was crazy. Hal looked sort of amused at least. "Just send the bridge so I can come home."

Just after I said that, a portal of glowing blue light appeared to my right and the boys stared at it in shock. I hung up on Ratchet, threw my phone to the ground before smashing it and looked at the gaping boys.

"I told you, you might freak out," I said. "Now come on before Ratchet comes through to drag me back. I get enough lectures from him."

And with that, I led the three boys through the ground bridge. On the other side I was greeted by Raf dashing into me and hugging.

"Hey Raf!" I said cheerfully as the bridge went away behind the four of us. "I missed talking to you."

"Never do that again!" Raf said.

"Hey, who you got with you?" Miko asked.

"Hal? Ben? Matt?" a voice that sounded faintly familiar asked and I looked up to see the man from the night I had been captured. I also saw another, older man.

"Dad!" Matt exclaimed and ran to him.

"And my work is done," I said.

"Amelia," Ratchet's voice had me turning slightly and looking up. I was vaguely aware of the three boys looking in shock at the giant alien robot. "Are you...well?"

"Leave it to you to ask that question instead of a cheerful greeting," I said. "Other than being starving and a slightly bruised pride, I am good. Speaking of greetings though, where is everyone else? Usually at least a couple of the bots are here."

"Bumblebee and Optimus are on patrol," Ratchet said. "While Bulkhead and Arcee are on a scouting mission."

"Ah, is Jack with them? Cause he's not here either," I asked.

"Yeah, he got to go, but I didn't," Miko said. "I had to stay and do homework."

I laughed. "Ok, ok, is there any food? I am starving! I haven't eaten since like the other day!"

"Yeah, come on," Miko said. She looked over to the other group of humans. "You guys hungry too?"

"Yeah!" Ben said. He and Matt rushed to follow Miko to the fridge, but I noticed Hal stayed behind so I walked over.

"You know, it's not poisonous," I said. "The Autobots don't know much about humans yet, but usually Miko and Jack get the food. So yeah, it's edible too."

"I don't...get it," Hal said, motioning with his hand to Ratchet, who was returning to his duties.

"The Autobots are good guys, don't worry," I said. "It's the Cons you want to look out for."

"That one that kidnapped you, right?" Hal's dad asked. At my look he introduced himself. "Tom Mason and this," he indicated the older man, "is Dan Weaver."

"I'm Amelia," I said. "And yes, the one who kidnapped me. That particular one was Knock Out, the Decepticon medic. He's quite vain, too." I rolled my eyes.

"So how'd you escape?" Weaver asked.

"Good question," I said, tilting my head slightly. "And one I'd rather talk about on a full stomach. I'm going to get some food, my stomach is mad at me for not eating for a couple days."

**~Aboard the Nemesis, Normal PoV~**

"You did what?" Megatron demanded of his second-in-command. "You brought a human here who knew about the Autobots and you don't have her now?"

"She got away! It's not my fault!" Starscream demanded. For some reason he felt really protective of the human girl. She had been the first to say she had hope for him. And the idea of not receiving beatings, like the one he currently was, was appealing. "She was sneaky!"

"Incompetent fool!" Megatron said, delivering another kick to Starscream's helm. "I want that girl back here! She will work for me!"

**~Autobot Base, Amelia's PoV~**

I sneezed.

"Bless you," Jack said, having gotten back with the other bots some time ago. I had just finished telling them my story of my time with the Cons.

"That's weird that Starscream let you go," Jack said.

"Even weirder that he seemed to care," Miko said. "That Con has a few screws lose."

I shrugged. "It's lost on me, Miko," I said. "Whatever motivation there, I have no idea. But I'm just glad to not be surrounded by beings I know would love to squish me."

"Were you scared?" Matt asked.

"Scared? I was terrified!" I said.

"Amelia, come here, you need your weekly check-up," Ratchet said, walking by toward the med area.

I sighed. "Of course I do," I said. "You know, I kinda miss not having a doctor." I whispered to the group of humans, causing several of them to chuckle.

"Come on, you know he's looking out for you," Jack said.

"Yeah and not himself, like Starscream," Miko said.

I shrugged and stood up, stretching. "Well, whatever reasoning 'Screamer used, he still let me go. Which is very confusing," I said. "But I suppose that's bound to happen when dealing with an insane Con."

I yawned and walked down the stairs and over to the medical area so Ratchet could give me my check-up. The others continued to talk, but my focus drifted to my check-up as Ratchet began the usual scans. Usually he did that typical check-up stuff, scanned me, told me to stop skipping breakfast and gave me a clean bill of health. So when instead he frowned and narrowed his optics dangerously to the point where if looks could kill I was sure the scanner would be melted, I kinda worried.

"Strange," Ratchet said. "You said Cons didn't do anything to you?"

I flinched a little when his glare never let up. "Other than make me go on an unproductive mission, no," I said.

"Hmm, this is odd," Ratchet said, turning back to the scanner.

"What is?" I asked, getting worried.

"I will have to do a more thorough scan to be sure," Ratchet said.

"Huh? What's wrong with Amelia?" Miko asked, the group of humans coming into the medical area.

"He's not for sure yet, but apparently there's something very odd," I said as Ratchet typed something into his scanner.

"Odd, like how odd?" Jack asked.

I shrugged. "Beats me," I said. I shivered when I felt the tingle of a more full scale scan than the one I was used to. "Man, I'm never gonna get used to that feeling."

"I know," Miko agreed.

"So what's up, Ratch?" I asked, looking up at the large bot.

"Hmm, this is more peculiar than I thought," Ratchet said.

He pressed some buttons on the larger monitor and a model of a human body appeared. On the top of the screen my name was written, but I couldn't read any of the other things. There were spots that were glowing red and notes off to the side with lines connecting them to those spots.

"Ok, let's pretend we can read all that here for a minute," I said, my worry clear in my voice. "And please tell us what it all means."

"It appears as though parts of your skeleton has...transformed," Ratchet said.

"Trans...you mean changed? As in it's not a human skeleton anymore?" I asked.

"That's exactly what I mean," Ratchet said. "Your skeleton seems to be changing into a Cybertronian protoform."

"Neh?" I asked, unable to fully express my confusion.

"What?" Miko asked. "You mean, Amelia's turning into a Cybertronian? An Autobot? One of you guys?"

"I am uncertain," Ratchet said. "I've never seen anything like this before." He took one look at my terrified expression and added, "But I will do everything I can to figure this out."

"But...if the Cons didn't do anything to her, how is this happening?" Jack asked.

"Lots of weird things have happened to me in the past," I said. "But this is just too weird."

"Don't worry, Amelia," Miko said, coming over and throwing an arm around my shoulder. "We're here for you every step of the way. And besides, you'll get to kick some Con aft if you do turn into an Autobot!"

"Miko," I said exasperatedly. "Will you ever get it in your head that war is bad?"

"No, I think she's a lost cause on that," Raf said, causing all of us to laugh while Miko said an indignant 'Hey!'.

"Aw, you know we're just messing with you," I said, ruffling the teenage girl's hair. "You're Miko and we wouldn't have you any other way."

Hal and his family came over and Hal put a hand on my shoulder.

"I'm sure this will get figured out," Hal said.

"Yeah, just hang in there," Tom said. "Your 'Ratchet' seems to know what he's doing most of the time."

"Until he comes across something that's never been known to happen before," I said. "Why can't my life just be simple again?"

"Because we're not meant for simple!" Miko said happily. "You know what you need? A distraction! Music time!"

"Sure, I suppose that's a good enough distraction," I said, shrugging.

We went over to the area where we have the music equipment set up and Miko, Jack, Raf and I went to our respective instruments while the others just watched. We went through a few songs before we just started goofing off and making up lyrics or changing songs around so they would fit our lives. By the time the three teens had to go home we were all laughing and having fun, even Ben and Matt joined us once we started making up words.

"We'll see you tomorrow," Miko said. "Keep that head up or I'll drag you to another concert."

"No! No more concerts!" I said.

Miko laughed. "I'm only joking," she said. She then left with Bulkhead to go to her home.

"Everything will be ok," Raf assured me. "Ratchet knows what he's doing."

"Thanks, Raf," I said, waving bye as he left with Bee.

"Just don't go depressed on us," Jack said.

I laughed. "I'll try not to," I said, waving bye to him as he rode off with Arcee.

Optimus walked over after they were all gone and knelt down and offered a hand. "How are you feeling?" he asked.

"All things considered, pretty good, Optimus," I said, climbing onto his hand. "Just wish I had a little more understanding of what's going on with me."

"We will figure this out," Optimus assured me. "Ratchet's working on it even as we speak."

"I know, Optimus," I said as he deposited me on the upper level where the new group of humans were currently located.

For the remainder of the day I talked with them, discovering that they were not actually part of this world either. They were apparently from a different Earth to this one or the one I came from. One that was dealing with the aftermath of a hostile alien invasion. They were happy to know that not all alien life forms were bad guys, but they needed to get back, so Ratchet set on finding a way to tweak the device that allowed me to go home when needed to allow them to return to their world. They also filled me in on what I missed while I was with Starscream.

"Wow, I feel sorry for Bee," I said. "I don't think I'd ever be the same after having Megatron in my head." I visibly shivered. "Creepy."


	9. Irritatedness and Unexpected Arrivals

**Chapter 9: Irritatedness and Unexpected Arrivals**

A week had passed since Megatron had been revived and Starscream had released me. The group of humans had been sent back to their world, as they had insisted that they couldn't stay when their world needed them. No one blamed them for wanting to return, though no one would've blamed them had they wanted to stay either. Miko was the only one who didn't seem to quite get that war was a horrible thing. She had annoyed all of our guests with her enthusiasm for battle.

On top of the stress I already experienced from day to day stuff, Ratchet had me in the medbay twice a day running tests and scans on me. He was extremely concerned over my predicament, as were everyone else. I was growing tired of the tests and the seemingly non-ending scans and it was starting to make me irritable. I kept the irritatedness hidden, though, as I didn't want to snap or anything at my Autobot friends. It appeared as though the change was going at a very slow pace right now, only my skeleton had any change in it and very few parts of it were Cybertronian so far. According to Ratchet's scans, my skeleton was a protoform from my wrist to half way up my forearm on my right arm, my knee was now Cybertronian on my left leg and my left shoulder was as well. There was no outer appearance of this change yet and we felt that it would be some time before it became visible to anything or anybody without scans. We still hadn't found the cause.

"Amelia, time for your check-up," Ratchet said as the large door to my quarters, which I had figured out were across from his own, opened.

I groaned and flopped my head down on my desk. I had been in the middle of writing. "Can't we just skip them for one day? I feel like a lab rat..."

Ratchet frowned, though I couldn't see it with my face on my paper. "You are not a lab rat," he said. "But we must keep tabs on this...transformation, so we know it is not harming you in any way."

"Meh, I don't care!" I said, my frustration with it all at an all time high. I even shook my fist angrily in the air.

"You should care!" Ratchet said in an aggravated tone. "This strange occurrence could end up killing you!"

"Fine! If that is supposed to happen, let it! I don't care at this point!" I said. I covered my head with my arms and hoped Ratchet would just go away. I was not in the mood for scans or tests.

"Amelia, what has gotten in to you?" Ratchet asked and I could hear the concern seeping through the angry tone.

"Nothing!" I said loudly, nearly growling.

"Don't give me that," Ratchet said. I heard him walking over to where I sat at my desk and tightened the cover I had over my head and closed my eyes, wishing he'd just let me be. "Amelia..." he said, his voice now sounding more exasperated and concerned than angry.

"Leave me alone," I said. I was vaguely aware of how pathetic my voice sounded with the whine that had made its way into my voice now.

"Amelia, I know you are scared, but I can't help you through this if you don't let me," Ratchet said, resting a large metal hand on my back. His hand was warm and the gesture was a little comforting. I sighed heavily.

"I'm sorry, Ratchet," I said, my eyes still closed. "I know you just want to help and make sure I don't die from whatever the heck is going on. It's just...hard. I'm sick of all the tests. I'm sick of not knowing. I'm sick of not being able to say for certain that everything will turn out right in the end. I've always run on faith that everything would work out, but this? This is just too much for me to handle. I hate having to admit this, but I am scared." I felt my body shudder.

"I know, Amelia," Ratchet said, his voice quiet and soothing.

"The whole fact that we don't know the cause isn't even the scariest part," I said. "I mean, even if I survive this, if we can't stop it and I do turn into a Cybertronian, I don't know the first thing about being one of you. I have vague ideas from fanfictions, but I don't have any idea on if any of that stuff is true. I've only ever been human. How am I suppose to live as something else? I'll just be more trouble than I'm worth."

"You will not be more trouble than you're worth," Ratchet said firmly. "If it comes to it, we will help you adjust. You are not alone in this Amelia."

"I know," I said, finally lifting my head up and looking over to him. "Thanks Doc Bot. I seem to already be having a hard time adjusting. Nothing's the same for me anymore, it's rough."

"I understand," Ratchet said. "Now are you going to allow me to give you your check-up this morning?"

I grimaced. "Can we please skip just one day? Or not even one day, just this one?" I pleaded with him.

"Amelia," he sighed. With one look at my pleading face though, he caved. "Just this one. I will still do tonight's though."

"Fair enough," I said, even as Ratchet surprisingly lifted my into his servo that had been resting on my back. It took me by surprise so I instinctively grabbed onto his thumb in slight fear, but quickly calmed down as he brought me close to his chassis. I sighed and leaned back against him, feeling the thrum of his spark as he walked out of my quarters.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"The children are here and Miko has been demanding you come help them with a song," Ratchet said. "She said she found a song by someone named Fireflight she believes you will like."

"Fireflight isn't a person, it's a group," I said. "I've heard some of their songs."

"I would prefer if you don't strain yourself," Ratchet said. "We do not yet know everything about what is going on with you."

"Will we ever?" I asked before sighing. "Don't worry Ratchet. I'm a little reckless at times, but I know my limits. I won't over exert myself."

"Good," Ratchet said.

Ratchet carried me out to the main portion of the base where he deposited me on the ground with the three kids.

"Amelia! What took you so long?" Miko asked. "We've been waiting for hours."

"It's only ten," I said. "I was writing."

"Really? Writing what?" Raf asked.

"Stuff," I said vaguely, smirking at the expression Miko made.

"One of these days you're gonna tell us what you spend so much writing about," Miko said.

"Sure I will," I said in a tone that said I clearly believed otherwise. "Now what's this song I hear you think I will love?"

The song turned out to be one of my favorite songs by the artist Ratchet had mentioned. Miko had us practicing it, because she wanted a new song to show Bulkhead when the bots returned from a mission they were apparently all on right now. Apparently they had picked up some Autobot signals somewhere in California and went to check it out. Part of me was expecting another weird occurrence, but part of me was hoping for some form of normalcy.

We practiced for several hours before Miko was satisfied with our performance. After that the three kids played one of several games I had brought with me when I had gone home for my stuff. I just watched them, leaning against the side of the couch as I sipped on a cup of hot chocolate I had made. They were playing Super Smash Bros. Melee and I rooted for all three of them, which amused Jack and frustrated Miko.

"Just choose a side already!" she said.

"But I don't want to choose a side," I said. "Whoo! Go Raf! Button mashing is not very effective, Miko."

"Oh shut up," Miko said, causing me to chuckle.

It was about an hour later when I heard the ground bridge activate and the Bots return. I turned my head to greet them only to become confused. With them were two new Autobots. One of them was red with black shoulder pieces. His optics were war hardened and I could tell just by looking at him he was a warrior. The second one was silver with some red accents and his optics were covered with a blue visor. I could recognize the first from the game War for Cybertron, but the second I only placed due to the visor.

"Whoa, who's the new guys?" Miko asked, enthusiastic as always.

"This is Ironhide and Jazz, two of my oldest friends," Optimus introduced. "These are the human children who are working with us."

"So these are humans, that's cool," Jazz, the silver one, said, his face becoming very close to mine.

"Ok, dude back up," I said. "Get in Miko's face, she'll love it." I moved Miko in front of me and then walked over to where Jack and Raf stood. It came as no surprise to me when Miko and Jazz started talking about music.

"Amelia," Optimus said and I walked over near where he stood with Ironhide. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm good," I shrugged. "Really, stop worrying so much. I can get through this. You have enough to worry about."

"What's wrong with you? You look fine to me," Ironhide said, poking at my side.

I gently pushed his finger away, trying not to giggle. "Please don't do that, I'm ticklish," I said. "And I think Ratchet's the better one to answer that question, he can probably explain it better."

"There is no real explanation," Ratchet said, walking over with a datapad in his hand. "But she is going through a change. Becoming one of us. Unless we can find a way to stop it."

"That's crazy," Jazz said, walking over, Miko on his shoulder.

"All this talk is great and all, but we got a new song I want to show off!" Miko said.

I rolled my eyes. "Leave it to you to want to show off a song before actually getting to know someone," I said, causing Miko to just grin.

"I think this calls for a party anyway," Bulkhead said. "We got more fire power against the Cons and more friends."

"Party? Amelia should be resting," Ratchet argued. "I do not want her to over exert herself."

"Oh come on, Ratchet," I said. "I'll be fine, I promise."

It took a little more convincing to Ratchet for him to allow us to have said party and we had to promise that we'd only do the one song. I thought Ratchet was being a little over bearing, but there was not much I could do about it. Miko had us do the song first thing, while all the Bots were around.

I always thought I had it figured out  
>No need for the benefit of the doubt<br>I could never look beyond what I could see

I was in control and it was all about me  
>I'm so sick and tired<br>Of this selfish life... I want more  
>Reach up, reach out<br>This house is burning down  
>These walls we've built are caving in<br>Reach up, don't give up  
>We're standing on the ashes<br>With a clearer view and a new perspective  
>I can feel the hardness breaking up inside<br>Shattered by the tears falling from their eyes  
>I just want to push beyond the boundaries<br>Surrendering all control 'cause it's not about me  
>They're so sick and tired<br>Of our selfish lives... they need more  
>Reach up (we know they need us)<br>Reach out (and they're all around us)  
>This house is burning down<br>These walls we've built are caving in  
>Reach up (it's a new beginning)<br>Don't give up (with the love we're giving)  
>We're standing on the ashes<br>With a clearer view and a new perspective  
>We need to open up our eyes<br>See it written on their faces?  
>We are running out of time<br>Is there no one who will save them?  
>I'm reaching out<p>

Reach up (we know they need us)  
>Reach out (and they're all around us)<br>This house is burning down  
>These walls we've built are caving in<br>Reach up (it's a new beginning)  
>Don't give up (with the love we're giving)<br>We're standing on the ashes  
>With a clearer view and a new perspective <p>

The Bots all seemed to like the song, though it was hard to tell if Optimus liked it or not, but he rarely showed emotion so yeah. The rest of the party we spent just hanging out, though Optimus left to go on patrol shortly after we had done the song. Apparently Primes just didn't party. It was fine with me, though I did occasionally become concerned over the boss bot. Ironhide assured me that he would be fine though.

"Optimus has been gone a long time," I observed several hours of story-telling and game playing later.

"Prime's just don't do party," Arcee said.

"Optimus will be fine," Ironhide said, seeing my worried expression.

"I know he will," I said, glancing at the large, red bot. "I am just a worry wart. I'm a worry wart to a fault. I'm not afraid to admit it. I know I worry when I don't need to and for no reason at all."

"You know, somehow I get the feeling there's more to that than you will tell us," Miko said, walking by behind me as she looked through a magazine.

"Oh shut up, Miko," I said. I flinched when I felt sudden pain in my head and rubbed my forehead with my fingers. "Ow, headache. I think I'm gonna go rest." I yawned. "I'm tired."

"Don't let the bed bugs bite!" Miko sing-songed as I walked off.

"Yeah, yeah, night everybody," I replied before disappearing down the enormous hallway.

As I walked I couldn't stop my mind from wondering to thinking of the reason why I was such a worry wart. I knew what it was, there was no denying to myself what it was. Ever since I first made a friend I had felt that same thing. I had gained friends and I had lost friends. I had lost family and gained family. Now I was torn from my old family and had made new friends and family here. I was so tired of losing and I hated the thought of being alone again as I once was. The truth of the matter was as simple an answer as I could find in the big mess I had found myself in.

I was afraid of losing my friends, even one of them.


	10. Sickness and Support

**A/N:** It's a shorter chapter than normal, but it's a chapter! ^.^ Yays! Sorry it is shorter, but there was only so much I could do with this chapter and feel comfortable with it. I feel like going further would've ruined it sort of. lol Don't ask, I don't know either. lol I blame my muse. Lol.

**Chapter 10: Sickness and Support**

I woke up on Monday morning feeling like I really didn't want to get up. I was cold, even with my warm Transformers blanket wrapped tight around me. My stomach growled and that was the only thing that got me up. That and the fact that Ratchet would likely barge in to check on me if I didn't go greet the Bots good morning as I always did before they went to pick the kids up for school. I kept my blanket wrapped around myself though, as I was really cold for some reason. When I stood up I was hit with a bout of dizziness, but after a moment the dizziness faded enough for me to walk straight, though it didn't completely dissipate, which had me worried.

I sighed and walked over to the door, pressing the button to open it with a still blanket covered finger. I was just walking into the main area when I sneezed loudly, getting everybot's attention.

"Good morning," I said, walking up the stairs.

"You alright?" Arcee asked. "You don't usually come in wrapped in a blanket."

"I'm cold and I don't feel well," I said. "I'm getting some soup and going back to bed. Just thought I'd say 'good morning' before everyone left to get the kids for school."

I felt the tingle of a scan and shot a glare in Ratchet's direction.

"Hm," the medic said. "It appears your transformation has sped up some. Your body may simply be getting used to the new speed or it isn't handling it well."

I hummed and reached where the non-refrigerated food was kept. I dug around in the cabinet until I found what I was looking for. I grabbed a can of chicken noodle soup and backed out. I grabbed a bowl from on top of the cabinet and walked over to where the microwave was. I heated the soup for three minutes, waving bye to the three Bots with charges as I waited. Once the soup was heated, I sat down on the couch and turned on the TV, flipping through the channels in search of something to watch. I found that the iCarly was on in a marathon today so I just stuck that on, since I knew I liked the show.

"Before you go to bed I want to run a full scan on you to make sure this isn't your body reacting badly to your transformation," Ratchet said as I stuck a spoonful of soup into my mouth.

"Ok, Ratchet," I said after swallowing the spoonful of soup.

As I ate, Ratchet and I were joined in the main room by Optimus, Jazz and Ironhide. Jazz bounded over to where I was happily.

"Hey there lil lady," Jazz said and I had to suppress a chuckle at how his personality in this continuity matched so well to his personality in the other continuities.

"Mornin'," I said, only sounding half-hearted due to my sickness.

"You feelin' a'right?" he asked.

"No," I groaned, leaning my head back against the couch. "I'm cold, I'm disoriented and I feel like crap. But enough about me, how are you this morning?"

"I'm a'right," Jazz said, looking a little worried. "Hey Ratch' I think our little friend here needs a check-up."

"I'm aware Jazz," Ratchet said. "Let her eat first though."

"What's wrong with her?" Ironhide asked.

"Nothing is wrong with me!" I said, throwing a hand into the air. "I'm just sick! It's a perfectly normal function! It's probably just a cold or something. It'll pass."

Ratchet scoffed. "I'm still looking you over," he said. "With you, a simple cold could be disastrous at this point."

"You don't know that," I said.

"And you don't know that I'm wrong," Ratchet countered.

"Enough," Optimus said. He looked at me. "Amelia, you are not usually like this, what has gotten into you?"

I sighed. "I could blame genes, but that'd be stupid," I said. "I am having a hard time I guess. I do tend to get defensive and…snappy when I am having a hard time dealing with something." I sighed again, placing the half-eaten soup aside before curling in on myself, the blanket pulled tight against me. "Nothing is making sense anymore."

"I understand, but regardless of your situation, talking back to those older and wiser than you is unacceptable," Optimus said.

"I'm sorry," I said, flinching, remembering another time I had been rebuked by someone for completely different reasons. I understood though that Optimus really was trying to keep me on the right path. "I will try to do better in the future whenever I am grumpy."

"That I all I ask," Optimus said and I flinched again. He seemed to notice my flinching and walked over. "Are you alright?"

"I'm sorry OP," I said. "Just an old memory."

"Would you care to talk about it? Perhaps in a more private setting," Optimus suggested, offering his hand for me to climb on.

"Not before I give her a check-up," Ratchet said.

I was still against it, because I was still so stinkin' tired of all the check-ups, but I relented. Optimus took me over to the med bay where Ratchet did some scans, finding that my transformation was in fact speeding up slightly. My skeleton was approximately half human and half Cybertronian and if you stared long enough you could see a little bit of progress being made. It was still going really slow however. After Ratchet was satisfied that my sickness was not going to kill me, I grabbed my blanket and a little crankily climbed into Optimus' hand once more.

He took me to the same room where we had had our talk the first day I was here and locked the door. He set me down on his desk and moved to sit in the chair behind it, waiting patiently as I settled down, wrapping myself in my blanket.

"Now," he said once I was settled. I refused to look up at him. "What is bothering you?"

"Well, for one, I am sorry I can be a little difficult at times," I said. I shifted a little. "I am still adjusting to the whole there-are-people-who-care thing."

Optimus frowned, looking at me with sad optics. He tilted his head slightly.

I shifted again. "I mean, I know my mom does care and all, but sometimes I would think she was the only one. I had no friends for a long time," I explained. "And my dad, well, he was never around and my parents got a divorce when I was seven. I don't have many memories of him. One time, a couple people took me in, saying they were going to 'help' me." I put air quotes around the word 'help'. "But all they did was judge me based on their view of my mother and my brother. They failed to look at me as a separate person. I couldn't do anything right in their view and they tried to control every little thing I did. I was there for them in the middle of the night when one of them was having a nightmare and yet I was the bad guy. My experience with them nearly destroyed me. I've had so many mixed messages in my life I sometimes don't know who or what to believe. I knew I could believe my mom for a long time, but then she turned her back on what she taught my brother and I just don't know anymore. I need to get back on track, I know I do, but it is hard."

"I understand and I hope you understand that we will not lead you astray," Optimus said. "We will not give you mixed messages and we will help you, not hurt you."

"I know, Optimus," I said, smiling. Adruptly, I sneezed and then groaned. "God, I hate colds."

"There is more that you are not telling me, but that is alright," Optimus said. "You can share when you are ready. But I am still uncertain as to why you flinched."

"It all falls down to those I said made me feel like crap even when I didn't do anything wrong," I said, one eye closed and the other open. "They were….mentally abusive to put it bluntly." I shuddered at the memories and fought back tears.

"I understand," Optimus said, his optics hard as he stood. He offered his hand. "Now, I believe you should get some rest."

I nodded and obediently climbed into Optimus' hand. He took me back to the main area and deposited me where the TV and stuff was located. I nodded me thanks, laid down on the couch and watched iCarly as I remained wrapped in my blanket. I was vaguely aware of Optimus walking over to where the other Bots all currently stood around talking, but I didn't pay attention to what any of them were saying. I just paid attention to the show and getting some rest.

"_So, how are things going between you and Freddie?"_

"_Good, only three fights this week."_

"_And you haven't punched him."_

"_Not in the face."_

I rolled my eyes at Sam. How long was it gonna take her to stop punching her poor long-time friend turned boyfriend? They fought worse than a married couple, but they were making their way to simply married couple fighting…that doesn't involve punching…maybe. I honestly had no clue whether the whole thing would work out, nor did I truly care, considering it was just a TV show, but it was still fun to try to figure it out. I had always hated reality shows, but iCarly was a comedy that was actually funny, though it did contain some of what could be considered reality.

As I watched the show my mind drifted off. Why was I here? Why was this change happening? Was there some purpose to all of this? Which only led to another question. Why me? What was so special about me?

Even as I asked myself these questions I felt something tighten within my chest. Before I fully realized this, I felt pain flash through me.

"Ratchet," I breathed and the doc bot immediately was by my side. "I think you had good reason to worry after all."

"Amelia? Slag!"

And that was all I heard before I passed out.

**~Normal PoV~**

Ratchet knew that he should expect anything when he first found the evidence of the newest human member of their team's transformation. He had put himself to work learning about the human body and how different things affected it and how it was supposed to work. Nothing really told him how it would affect her to go through this transformation and he still had not found a way to stop it. But nothing had prepared him to see the girl in pain as she now lay unconscious on a medical berth. She was running a high fever, but her body shivered despite the fact that she now had three blankets covering her.

"She's good hands, Ratchet," Optimus told him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"But I don't know what to do, this is not exactly known to happen," Ratchet said as he worked to get her vitals stabilized.

"I know you will do what you can," Optimus said. "And we will all be here for her when this is over."

"If she survives it," Ratchet said, gazing worriedly at the girl in her unconscious state. He silently prayed that she would be alright.

No one spoke and no one remained in the med bay, not even Optimus, as Ratchet worked. The Bots all occupied themselves with one thing or another and the children did too when they arrived after school. Optimus went out on patrol. Arcee and Ironhide had a rough sparring match in the training room. Jazz took Jack to his job at the burger joint and stayed there with him. Raf and Bumblebee played video games. And Miko and Bulkhead went for a drive around the Nevada desert.

Every single one of them was worried about the girl laying unconscious in Ratchet's med bay.


	11. Technical Difficulties

**A/N: **It's another short one. I hope you can forgive me for that. The chapters for this story will be back to normal size soon, I promise! You can blame my muse.**  
><strong>

**Chapter 11: Technical Difficulties**

**~The Nemesis, Normal PoV~**

"What is it Soundwave?" Megatron snarled. He had been trying to focus on something, but he was interrupted by his third-in-command.

"I am no longer going to be a slave to Megatron," Starscream's voice came from Soundwave's speakers. "But I will not go to those pathetic Autobots either. I am aligned to no one!" This was followed by the roar of a jet engine, indicating that Starscream had taken off.

"That traitorous pile of scrap," Megatron growled. "We don't have time to hunt him down, not with the time of the prophecy coming nearer. We need to find more Dark Energon. If anyone comes across Starscream he is not to be allowed to live."

When Soundwave nodded, the Decepticon leader dismissed him and returned to his search for Dark Energon.

**~Autobot Base, Normal PoV~**

The air was tense for the bots and their small human allies. It was like they were all waiting for something to go downhill, though they were hoping for the best.

After Amelia had gotten sick and then passed out, Ratchet had worked hard to keep her stabilized. The cause of her fainting was because he transformation had suddenly decided to take a fast route. The transformation had completely taken over and Ratchet had difficulty keeping it from offlining her. When he was sure they were going to lose the small femme, a bright light had shone, blinding him temporarily. When the light had cleared, a small Cybertronian femme frame was laying before him, all systems stable. He couldn't explain it. Nor could anyone else.

Now they were just all waiting for her to wake up. After a week of waiting the femme still showed no signs of waking and hope that she ever would was beginning to dwindle. Even as they dealt with MECH when they had captured Breakdown, they all could feel the hope for the little femme fade a little more each day. They hadn't even known what to tell Tana about what had happened when she had come to visit with another friend. Both had refused to leave until she woke up.

"Slaggit, why won't she wake up?" Ratchet growled and absently threw a wrench at the wall.

He sighed heavily and leaned on his table, looking over at the offline femme. He ran over everything in his processor and did some more scans, trying to find anything he missed. Nothing. Everything seemed to be going smoothly with her Cybertronian systems. She wasn't low on Energon. There was no glitch as far as he could tell without her being online and functional. He couldn't understand it. He hadn't slept much since she had fallen into this odd state of stasis. He couldn't. Not when the newest member of their team needed him.

The door to the med bay opened and Optimus walked in followed by Ironhide.

"There's been no change," Ratchet said in automatic response to the entrance of two of his Autobot brothers.

"You need to rest, Ratchet," Optimus said. "We will keep an optic on Amelia."

"No," Ratchet said. "I cannot rest knowing she is in this state, Optimus. I only wish I could do more for her." He sent another sad look at the femme only to see her expression twitch. He shared a look with his leader before the three of them walked over next to the medical berth.

Slowly, but surely, the femme's systems started coming online. It was sluggish, which was to be expected with how long she had been out, but she was waking up. Hope soared through Ratchet's spark as he checked and double checked her vitals. Everything seemed to be in working order and he was further relieved when she opened her optics.

"Amelia?" Optimus asked.

"Hey Optimus," she said before blinking at her surroundings and the three mechs surrounding her. "What….happened?"

"Do you remember being sick?" Ratchet asked.

Amelia thought for a moment before nodding. "I…passed out," she said silently.

Ratchet nodded. "Turns out your transformation picked up tremendous speed," he explained. "Whether it was in response to your sickness or the cause of it, is difficult to know."

Amelia blinked a moment before looking at her own hand. "So…I'm Cybertronian now?"

"Indeed," Ratchet said.

**~Later that Day, Amelia's PoV~**

After I woke up from being offline, Ratchet, Optimus and Ironhide helped me get accustomed to my new body enough for me to be able to function. After that Arcee helped me find a good vehicle mode. I was slightly bigger than Arcee, though still smaller then Bumblebee, so we figured out that I needed a small four wheel vehicle. I ended up settling on a 2009 Ford Focus RS with a white paint job and purple flames. I wasn't sure why the flame paint job seemed attractive to me, but it did. When I transformed back into bipedal mode, Arcee had said that she thought it fit me. I had door wings much like Bumblebee did.

"I think it fits you perfectly," Miko said when I arrived in the main area and everything was explained to those present.

"It does," Tana said. She was standing next to an older woman with brown hair and tanned skin. "And you got a flame paint job, like Movie Optimus."

"Movie Optimus?" I asked, tilting my head. I looked over at Optimus and saw that he did not have a flame paint job.

"Yeah," Tana said, looking at me oddly. "Back home? The movies? Sam Witwicky? The hunt for the AllSpark? Revenge of the Fallen?"

My door wings drooped slightly. "I….don't remember," I said.

"But you've known that stuff for years," Tana said. She looked sad and worried. "You remember her, right? Daphne? You've known her longer than you've known Transformers."

I looked at the woman next to her and tried to remember seeing her before. I felt my door wings droop even more. "I'm sorry," I said.

"Amelia," Optimus said, walking up next to me. "What is the first thing you remember?"

I thought about that for a few moments. "Falling out of a tree…" I said after several minutes.

"It appears as though you've lost memories from before your time here," Ratchet said. "Tana has been to visit since then. That would explain why you recognize her and not Daphne."

I looked at the woman named 'Daphne'. "I'm sorry I don't remember you," I said.

"It's ok sweetie," Daphne said. "It's not your fault you don't remember."

I smiled slightly, but still felt bad about not remembering someone who must've been a good friend. I wondered who else I didn't remember.

"Come on, I want to do some tests on your memory core," Ratchet said. "There may be something I missed."

I nodded and sighed.

"Hey, chin up," Daphne said. "Next time I hear about you I want to hear that you are happy. It doesn't matter what happened in the past. That's gone now, you're moving forward, not backward. Old things are made new."

I smiled and nodded at her. "I will try," I said. "I do remember that 'old things are made new' thing. I believe I told Miko it once, now I know where I got it from."

Miko nodded. "Yeah, she told me that alright," she said. "When she was trying to explain to me about how a murderer could possibly turn his life around."

"I believe I was using that as an example," I said, smirking.

Ratchet ushered me away from the main area to the med bay. All present humans, including Tana and Daphne, followed behind with the Bots. That brought me to the med bay for a few hours with Ratchet analyzing my processor. A large wire was attached to the back of my head as Ratchet stood at a computer terminal.

"So you don't remember anything from before you arrived here?" Daphne asked.

"Nothing," I said. "I remember all my time here just fine though."

"Got any answers yet, doc bot?" Miko asked.

"According to my scans…those memory files are simply gone," Ratchet said, sounding stunned. "There's no evidence that the files were there and somehow became corrupted. They just…aren't there."

"So," I said, my door wings drooping as I came to a sad conclusion. "The odds of me remembering those things…"

"Are dismal at best," Ratchet sighed. He looked at me as I felt myself sink. "I'm sorry, Amelia."

"Don't be," I said, my door wings still lowered. "It's not your fault. Weird things just happen some times."

"It'll be ok," Daphne said, patting y ankle. I was amazed at how comfortable she was around all the giant alien robots. "We'll praying for ya back home. Just keep the faith."

I smiled down at her. "What I remember of it," I said. "I will do my best."

"So what do you remember anyway?" Miko asked.

"Anything I shared with you guys," I said, looking at my teenage friend. "Some things I know happened in the past because I remember talking about it, but I don't actually remember it."

Miko grinned. "You shared a lot about your faith," she said. "Good thing, too."

I gave her a confused look. "Why would it not be good?" I asked.

Tana laughed. "Same old, Amelia," she said. "Good to know that your memory loss has not changed you."

"Just because I got some…technical difficulties…doesn't mean I am not still me," I said, grinning as Ratchet disconnected the wire from my head.

Everyone smiled, shook their head or laughed.

"Technical difficulties…" Daphne repeated, shaking head as she chuckled. "Sometimes I wish I had some 'technical difficulties.'"

After that Tana and Daphne had to leave because there was school the next day. Following that I spent the day with the human children, Bulkhead, Bee and Jazz as I got used to my new body. By the end of the day I was more than ready for a good recharge. As my room was currently equipped with a human bed, I had to spend the night in the med bay until that dilemma could be fixed. But I found I could live with that.


	12. A Visit Home

**Chapter 12: A Visit Home**

**~Amelia's PoV~**

It was weird not remembering things, but knowing they happened because I had talked about it during the time I did remember. I didn't dwell on it for very long at a time though. Ratchet said either the memories would come back in time or I wouldn't ever remember the years before. It was useless dwelling on something that I couldn't affect. The whole week after I woke up was spent with Ratchet, Optimus and Ironhide as the three helped me get used to being Cybertronian. Ratchet helped me with the basics of living while Optimus gave me lessons in Cybertronian history while Ironhide gave me lessons in combat.

When I walked into the main area that weekend I felt I could handle being Cybertronian and that I could at least partially defend myself, even if not for long. I didn't feel prepared to see Tana and Daphne again, however. I walked over near where they stood in the area with the video games and such.

"Hey guys," I said. "What's up?"

"We thought that maybe coming for a visit at the farm might help you remember," Tana said.

"Have you talked to Optimus about that?" I asked.

"He said he thought it was a good idea," Daphne said. "Can't hurt to give it a try and it'll get you off base for a day at the least."

"Well, I have been feeling a little trapped," I said. "I haven't been off base all week. It's driving me crazy."

Daphne smiled. "You never did like being stuck indoors," she said. "You'll get plenty of fresh air on the farm. I don't think you'd even fit in the door."

"No, probably not," I said, grinning.

"You're not going until I give you your check-up," Ratchet said, walking by.

"Still?" I whined.

"Yes, still," Ratchet said.

"Come on, Ratch, it's been a week," I said. "I'm pretty sure nothing is wrong beyond my loss of memory."

"Can't be too careful," Ratchet said. "Now get over here."

I sighed. "I hate check-ups," I said.

"You never did like doctors," Tana said, grinning. "Yet you get along with Ratchet just fine. You just don't like check-ups."

I rolled my optics and reluctantly walked over to where Ratchet was waiting. He did the usual scans on my neural network and…well, everything else. He still found nothing wrong with anything, but he still insisted that it needed to be done. I still thought he was being overtly cautious.

An hour later I drove through the ground bridge to the other dimension with Tana and Daphne riding inside me. It was definitely a strange feeling to have people inside me. It just felt so…weird. It was definitely something that I would have to get used to. When they got out on the other side, I noticed that a few people exited the building not far away.

"Where's our girl?" a man asked. He had grey hair and a small tuft of hair just under his lower lip. He wore a black shirt that read 'Get out of my garden, Satan.' I grinned at it, knowing what it referenced despite not having most of my memories. I did remember talking about that story to Raf once.

"She's right in front of you, Mike," Tana said. "She's not human anymore, remember? We told you that."

I transformed and kneeled down to where I could look at the group of people better. I felt my door wings flutter a little with my curiosity.

"Hey," I said, blinking at the expressions on the faces of the people in front of me. I shifted a little in discomfort.

"Amelia?" a girl with long blonde hair asked. Her eyes were brown and she was very skinny, skinnier than I was as a human.

I nodded, blinking. "And you are?"

"You really don't remember me? We've been friends for years! You're part of this family," the girl said.

"I'm sorry," I said, my door wings drooping. "I can't remember anything from before my time with the Autobots." I shifted to where I sat down. "But if we were friends before, you are still my friends now. Past is past. We can make new memories, right?"

"You betcha," Daphne said, patting my leg.

"You have door wings, that's cool," a boy said. He looked to be the middle one of the three boys. There were three girls as well, though one looked like she wasn't related by blood, maybe the daughter of the blonde woman.

My door wings twitched a little. "Thanks, I think," I said. "So…I believe introductions are in order. You know me, but I don't know you. Kind of unfair, ain't it?"

The man, Mike as Tana called him, chuckled. "Yeah, yeah it is," he said, a smile on his face.

So then I was introduced to the family. Mike and Daphne were the parents of the three boys and two of the girls, though there was a third girl who wasn't present. The blonde girl who had spoken was Emily, while the younger one with brown hair was Mary and the third girl, who had blonde hair and light brown eyes, was Megan and she was the daughter of the blonde woman who was Bev. The three boys were David, Daniel and Jeremiah with Daniel being the one who had spoken. After introductions each of them had a story to tell me about my time at their church and with them, as part of the family.

"You preached once and you threw sticks on the ground," Daniel said. "And didn't clean them up, kids did."

I grinned, covering my mouth to hide a laugh. "I did, did I? Really? I had the courage to do that?" I asked. "What was the message about?"

"That God could break all chains," Mike said.

"I remember that," Bev said. "You did great. I don't see how you wore those chains though. Those things are heavy."

"I wish I could say, but I don't remember," I said, frowning. My door wings momentarily drooped again, but I pushed the sadness aside and they picked back up.

"Your door wings move with your moods," Jeremiah said, apparently being the first to notice this.

I nodded. "They do," I said. "No hiding my emotions for me." I grinned. "But I like them anyway."

"I like them too," Jeremiah said.

"You're sweet," I said. "If I wasn't afraid I'd crush you, I'd hug you."

He shrugged. "I'll hug you, I don't care," he said before walking over. I bent down to where my face was in front of him and he gave my face a hug. I carefully wrapped a hand around his small form before letting him back up.

"See? You didn't crush me," Jeremiah said.

I smiled. "No, but it was still awkward," I said. "I'm not sure I'll ever get used to being this big."

"I want a hug too," Megan said. "You're my sister from another mister."

I chuckled and shook my head. I gave everyone present a hug in turn. Even the boys gave me a hug, though I dunno why that was surprising.

"I am sorry I don't remember you guys," I said. "I wish I did, you guys seem like great people."

"It's alright," Mike said. He patted my leg gently. "Don't feel bad, it's not your fault."

"Let's have a Bible study," Mary said. "You know, so Amelia can relearn some things." 

"Oh! I'd love that," I said, my door wings perking up.

"Alright," Mike said. "I have to go do a job, but let's all meet at the top of the hill in a few hours for a group study. You can do whatever in the meantime."

"Sounds good," Daphne said. "I have to go to the store, anyone want to go with me?"

"I do!" Emily, Mary and Megan all said at the same time.

"I need to get some groceries for the bunk house," Bev said.

"Ok, so all the girls except for Tana are coming with me, then?" Daphne said. "Poor Amelia gets left with a bunch of boys."

I shrugged. "That's ok," I said. "I'm surrounded by boys at base as well. There are a total of three girls there at any given point. Everyone else are guys."

"That sucks," Mary said.

I shrugged. "We're all friends," I said. "Ratchet obsesses over everyone's well-being, Ironhide's teaching me how to defend myself, Arcee is teaching me…about being a girl…and the rest of us just hang out. Well, Optimus doesn't do much 'hanging out', but he's like a big brother. We're like one big happy family."

"Cool," Daniel said.

About then is when Mike left to do his job and the girls all left to go to the store. I just hung in the front yard, watching the boys play golf. Jeremiah got me to try once, but the ball went way too far for their tastes and I could've sworn I heard the faint sound of something breaking. I didn't try again after that. I just watched and gently pet the dogs. They had a dozen of them at least, including the puppies. We talked some too, them asking me about life with the Autobots and me asking them about normal life.

When the girls returned, Megan, Mary and Tana took me into the woods surrounding the farm and we explored, pretending we were protecting the farm from hostile forces. The hostile forces consisted of human zombies, Decepticon zombies and the occasional Nazi. Too bad Miko wasn't there, she'd have had fun with this. I heard she has a strange fascination with zombies. It was definitely fun. We went back to the edge of the woods, just at the top of the hill that overlooked the farm when we heard the boys calling for us. Then we spent the remainder of the day deep in a study of the Bible.

That night I stayed on the farm, sleeping on the ground outside the house. I laid on my stomach, a position I took up a lot as a human as well, and watched as the animals found places to sleep. Everyone took the time to say goodnight to me and some even hugged my face, which wasn't quite so awkward anymore. As I fell into recharge I had the fleeting thought that these really were some good friends, to still view me as a friend and treat me so well even after I changed species and lost all former memory of them. I was quite happy when they said I was welcome to visit anytime.


	13. More Chillin' Out

**A/N: **As with the other stories I am writing, I am going to be responding to every review. As always, if I miss you, I'm sorry.

Also, as a heads up, if you have not seen the episodes T.M.I. and all the episodes after it to finish out season one then you may want to before reading the chapter after the one after this one and on. There will be some spoilers for those of you who haven't seen them.

**Luna Prime-Awesomeness:** Hey! Friendship's not cheesy! Lol. Ok, maybe it is. *grins*

**Sailor Shinzo: **Yeah, that is a good thing. Don't worry, there will be more action soon enough. Lol. :)

**Vivian Hale: **Lol! The irony! That seems to happen a lot with us doesn't it? Lol. Daphne is actually the name of one of my friends.

**Queen Lilliandil:** She already is crazy! Lol! And she does run on faith, which doesn't leave much room for looking on the downside. :)

**Chapter 13: More Chillin' Out**

**~The Farm, Amelia's PoV~**

"Amelia," a voice broke into my wonderfully peaceful recharge cycle.

"What?" I mumbled, fighting the urge to roll over.

"Time to wake up," the voice said and I could now recognize it as Mike.

"Meh," I said before yawning and opening my optics to find the silver haired man standing in front of my face. "Any reason I need to wake up? Or just cause it's morning?"

"Actually, your friends called and they would like you home soon," Mike said.

"Meh," I said. "Probably Ratchet wanting to give me another check-up. Again. Crazy mech is paranoid." I stretched out as I spoke, before shifting into a sitting position. "How long do I have?"

"Until tonight," Mike said. "The girls were wondering if you wanted to hang out for a while first."

"Of course," I said. "I love hanging out with them."

Mike smiled. "Give them a few minutes though, they're waiting on the bathroom."

I chucked a little. "Alright," I said.

Five minutes later Mary came running out of the house, looking really excited about something.

"Amelia! Can you take us to the church?" Mary asked.

"Well, I could if I knew how to get there," I said.

"We can guide you," Mary said. "Emily wants to work on her song, but we still want to hang out with you, so we wanted you to come with."

"Sure," I said. "Sounds fun."

Not a moment later, the other two girls I had met came out with their dad and David. Mary told them that I was ok with the plan and soon enough they were all piled in my alt mode.

"This is still really weird for me…" I commented as I slowly began the drive down the hill.

"I imagine," Mike said, clearly trying his best not to grab my steering wheel.

"Yeah, you have people _inside_ you," Emily said. "It gives me chills just thinking about it."

I chuckled. "It's not as awkward as you would think," I said. "It's just weird. You know that feeling that makes you be extra careful, lest something bad happen? Like when you're being really careful not to spill an overly full cup of hot chocolate."

Everyone laughed a little at that.

"Ow…pot hole…" I mumbled. "Now I know how cars feel."

Mike chuckled. "Sorry, our neighbors don't take care of their part of the driveway," he said.

"That's fine," I said. "I'm just not used to it yet. Ratchet said I need to build up my strength before I can handle pot holes without a problem."

"That makes sense," Emily said.

"It feels weird talking as a car," I said.

"What? Like a possessed car?" Mary asked, amusement clear in her voice.

"Ironically, that's exactly what I was thinking!" I said, laughing. "I could pull some pranks on people this way…Except Optimus wouldn't be too happy with me. I'm pretty sure that'd be breaking a rule."

"Yeah," David agreed. "Though it does sound fun. Daniel would probably do it."

"Yeah, he would," Megan and Mary said.

I chuckled. "I admit there's at least one person I want to freak out back in the other world," I said. "He picks on Raf and that makes me mad. But again, Optimus wouldn't be too happy with me."

"You really don't want to disappoint him, do you?" Mike asked.

"No," I said. "I look up to him as a mentor and friend. He is like an older brother. I don't like disappointing him."

"Aww," Emily said. "I don't think you'll disappoint him. You're a good person…bot…living being."

I chuckled. "Thanks Em," I said. "I believe the correct term is 'bot'…I think."

Mike chuckled. "You think?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Just as long as you don't call us robots," I said. "Especially in front of Ratchet. He _hates_ when someone refers to us as robots. Robots have no feelings and are not self-aware as we are."

"Yeah, I made that mistake once while visiting," Tana said. "I've never had to dodge so many giant wrenches in my life!"

Everyone laughed.

"When did that happen?" I asked.

"Oh, you were outside, pouting," Tana said.

"I was not pouting!" I said indignantly. "I was thinking. There is a difference."

"You think too much then!" Tana said.

"Would I be me if I didn't?" I asked.

"No, you wouldn't," Mike said, a sort of smirk on his face.

When we reached our destination, the group of people all piled out and I transformed after driving to a spot where I was least likely to be seen. The family brought their music equipment outside so we could 'hang out' as they worked on the song that Emily had written. The song, I thought, was beautiful and I thought they were all very talented and gifted when it came to the music department. Miko would love hearing all about this.

Listening to Emily sing and the others play the music was wonderful. For those hours we spent going over the song I felt like nothing else mattered. All that mattered was listening to them praise God, banter with each other and occasionally giving my opinion. I was able to help a little with the sound since I had better hearing than humans now.

Daphne, Bev and Jeremiah showed up at some point. Daphne and Bev went inside the church to clean while Jeremiah stayed outside and I let him try climbing up me. I kept a hand underneath him in case he fell, but he was a very good climber and made it all the way to my shoulder. He then joined me in listening to his family practice until he was wanted to practice a song he had a part in. I lifted him off my shoulder myself and gently set him down near the instruments. I was uncomfortable with the idea of him climbing down himself, though he tried to get me to let him try.

After they were done practicing, David went home with Daphne and Bev and Jeremiah came with the rest of us to go out to eat and hang in the park. There was actually one too many people inside to sit comfortably, but since Jeremiah was the smallest one of the group, he sat on someone's lap. We stopped at McDonald's and the humans all got something to eat, though Emily only got a fruit smoothie.

"No eating till we get there," Mike warned as he handed the sack of food to Emily, who sat in the passenger seat. He had a hand on my steering wheel to give the illusion that he was driving.

"Please," I added. "I don't want another lecture on having people eat inside of me."

"Another?" Mary asked. "But you haven't had people inside you before."

"Yes," I said. "But Ratchet gave me the lecture anyway, because apparently Miko ate inside Bulkhead once and it ticked Ratchet off when he started complaining about crumbs being in very uncomfortable places. Where those places are, I won't even try to guess. I just don't want to listen to that lecture again…I was about to fall asleep…and then I got a lecture about falling asleep while someone was talking to me…"

Mike chuckled. "Reminds me of high school," he said.

"Don't worry, Amelia," Emily said. "We'll make sure you're all clean before you return to base."

"Yeah," Tana said. "We'll give you a car wash and everything."

"I wonder what it feels like to be washed as a car," Mary wondered.

"I can always tell you, I suppose," I said, my voice showing my wariness of it.

"What are you nervous about?" Mike asked.

"Reckless driver at twelve o'clock," I said, using the fact that there was a reckless driver coming our way to hide the real reason. I didn't know what it was like to be washed as a car as it would be my first time.

"Really?" Jeremiah asked.

"Hold on!" I said suddenly as I had to quickly maneuver to avoid hitting the mentioned reckless driver. It was a good thing I had quick reflexes or we would've been caught in the wreck that happened behind us.

I came to a stop, my engine making noise with my fear as my passengers freaked out and Mike used some choice words he probably wouldn't have used on any other occasion.

"Is everyone alright?" I asked once I was calm enough to talk. I observed the screaming match going on a few feet behind us.

"We're good, but they may not be," Mary said, pointing behind us.

Mike tried to open the door, only to find it locked. "Let me out so I can check on them," he said.

"They're screaming at each other…" I pointed out.

"I'll go too," Mary said. "I can get them to stop yelling at each other."

"Blessed are the peacemakers," Emily quoted from the Bible.

I relented and allowed the two to get out. I watched as father and daughter walked up to the arguing people and got them to stop arguing. It was about fifteen minutes before a squad showed up, along with a couple cop cars. There was someone unconscious in the car that was hit by the reckless driver and the paramedics had to cut the car apart to get them out. Luckily, no one was dead, though my sensors told me the unconscious person was on a dangerous edge. My engine made a noise with my worry and every human still inside me almost automatically pat me in comfort.

I watched warily as the police got what happened from the people and tensed when one came over to the passenger side where Emily sat. I rolled my window down so they could talk, but refused to open my door. The cop asked my passengers what had happened and they told them the truth in a way that they weren't lying, but didn't really reveal that I was a sentient being. Emily did say that I was a one of a kind car, but that didn't really give it away. Not exactly anyway. That could mean anything after all.

When we left, everything seemed to be under control, though the reckless did lose their license and had to be driven away by the cops. The cops failed to notice the fact that there were too many people in the Ford Focus. We continued to the park, where we just hung out and conversed as they all ate. I almost didn't want to return to base and leave them, but I knew I would only miss the Bots if I didn't return. I also wanted to find a way I could help against the 'Cons.

While I enjoyed my time with my group of friends from before, I was happy to be back on base later that day. I even gave all the Bots hugs in greeting. They seemed happy to have me back as well.


	14. It's Only Routine

**A/N: **I got an A on my English final! I am so happy! I am going to miss my English class. I loved it so much! *cries* But I must move forward. :)

**Princess Thil Galel: **Awww, I love that idea. Not yet though. Soon enough though. ;p Thanks. I am glad some people like that I have chapters off of action or drama. Unlike some people who demand action in every chapter. I've not had that problem, but my brother is like that…*shakes head*

**Queen Lilliandil: **I would never be able to drive recklessly. I have a healthy fear of driving. Lol

**Vivian Hale: **Great minds think alike. We must really be great minds with how much it happens to us! Lol. Well, when you think about it, a Pastor is a leader of a church and Prime is leader of the Autobots. That could be why.

And now! On with the story!

**Disclaimer:** Cause I gotta do it every once and a while. I do not own Transformers: Prime. If I did we'd likely know why Raf understands Bee by now.

**Chapter 14: It's Only Routine**

**~Amelia's PoV~**

I yawned, lifting myself off my new Cybertron-sized bed just enough so I could stretch out. If Tana had been here, she'd comment on how I stretch like a cat. I then laid back down, debating about whether or not to go back into recharge. I wasn't really tired, I just didn't want to get up yet, especially when I check my chronometer and it said that it was only seven thirty. It was a Saturday morning, so the others wouldn't be leaving to take the kids to school, only to bring them here. It wasn't that I didn't want to go through my day, just that I was deep in thought. I was supposed to go with Ironhide and Ratchet on a routine scouting mission for Energon. It was just routine, which is why I was allowed to tag along, but I was excited.

A knock at my door had me sighing and getting up to answer it. Unsurprisingly, I found Ratchet at the other side.

"Mornin' Ratch," I said before yawning.

"Good morning, Amelia," he said. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I just woke up actually," I said. "I was really tired last night."

"You had an eventful couple days from what I heard," Ratchet said. "Are you ready for your daily check-up?"

"Do I have to?" I whined. I could've sworn I saw a smirk cross Ratchet's face, but it was gone as fast as it had appeared. I wondered if I had been imagining it.

"Yes, Amelia, you have to," Ratchet said. "You want to go with me and Ironhide, don't you?"

"Yeah," I said. "But do I really need a check-up? I still think this is overkill."

"Well, I don't," Ratchet said. "Now come on. The sooner I give you your check-up, the sooner you can get on with your day."

I sighed and followed him out of my room and to the medbay. The check-up went as it always did. Ratchet checked for any anomalies or glitches in my processor, but found nothing. We talked some as well, as we always did. There was always _something_ to talk about with our crazy friends.

"You missed Bulkhead's reiteration of his dream this morning," Ratchet commented. "You would've enjoyed it."

"Really?" I asked, frowning. Bots had dreams?

Ratchet noticed my reaction immediately. Hard not to when poking around someone's processor I suppose.

"Are you ok?" Ratchet asked.

"Bots….have dreams?" I asked.

"Of course," Ratchet said, frowning. "It is a natural part of any life form's existence. I had a dream myself last night, but I'm not about to reiterate it for you. Why do you ask?" He looked concerned about the question.

"I…haven't had any dreams…" I said. "Not since changing. I just assumed it was normal for Cybertronians and that I should get used to it."

Ratchet sighed. "If something doesn't seem normal, never assume that it is," he reprimanded me. "There must be _something_ wrong. Perhaps a missing string of data. I will need to run an in depth diagnostic to find it."

My door wings drooped and I fought back some fear at the thought of it. "In depth?" I asked nervously.

Ratchet sighed. "Yes, I will need to put you in stasis in order to do it," he said.

I shifted away from Ratchet nervously. The thought of being unaware of what was going on around me while he poked and prodded in my head did not sit right with me. It felt…intrusive. And any number of things could go wrong.

"Amelia?" Ratchet said. He looked hesitant, probably because of my reaction. "You trust me, don't you?"

I looked at Ratchet. He looked tense, like my reaction had bothered him. I could tell he got the impression that I was afraid of him. No, I wasn't afraid of him. I was just afraid of what he was saying. It wasn't that I didn't trust him, just that I was frightened of the idea of having someone working on my processor while I was unaware. His optics looked troubled, almost frightened. But why would he be frightened? Of my answer? Was he scared I'd say 'no'? Why would he be, though? I was probably just seeing things.

"It's not that I don't trust you Ratch," I said, turning away. "You are one of the ones I trust most, actually. I just…" I shifted, wrapping my arms around myself. "Dunno about such a procedure. That's what frightens me. Being unaware as someone pokes and prods in my head. It just…doesn't sit right."

"I see," Ratchet said and had I been paying attention, I would've noticed the tension in his frame relax some, though not much. "If you feel you are not ready, it can be put off for a little bit. But it _has_ to be done. The cause of your lack of dreams may be something that could eventually affect something else."

I nodded in understanding, though that only really made me more worried about it. We sat/stood there for a few minutes, neither of us speaking. I wished that whatever was wrong would just fix itself. Then I wouldn't be facing this problem and possibly be hurting Ratchet with my reluctance to let him do the procedure. I knew if I were in his position, I'd be a little hurt. I said I trusted him, yet I couldn't bring myself to let him do the procedure that needed to be done.

I felt bad as I left the medbay and my door wings remained drooped as I walked. I trusted Ratchet and yet I couldn't let him do a simple procedure to find a problem that _did_ exist. I felt pathetic, being scared of having _Ratchet _do a procedure he's probably done thousands of times. But it wasn't just a simple procedure to me. It was probing around in my head. My space. My sanctity from reality. If anything went wrong, I would never be myself ever again. And if I wasn't me, then who was I? But he said the problem could show up in other areas down the road…

I sighed as I found myself in the main area of the base and looked up to see the Bots all gathered there. Bulkhead and Bumblebee were watching Miko and Raf play video games. Arcee and Jack weren't around, so I assumed they went for a drive. Optimus, Ironhide and Jazz were gathered around the main computer. It was then I remembered about the scouting mission and my mood immediately picked back up. My door wings lifted and my expression brightened as I walked over to the three.

"Hey guys!" I said cheerfully.

"There you are," Ironhide said. "I was beginning to think you chickened out."

"Nah, I just over slept," I said.

"Dat's understandable," Jazz said. "Ya've had a long week."

_No kidding,_ I thought inwardly, though outwardly I continued to smile.

"Where is Ratchet?" Optimus asked.

"He should be here soon," I said.

**~Normal PoV~**

As Amelia finally left the medbay to go join the others, Ratchet found that he couldn't bring himself to follow. He wanted to be alone while he sifted through what had just transpired. Did she really trust him as she claimed? What if she didn't and just didn't want to hurt him? No, she wasn't the type to lie to save someone pain. She was brutally honest. It was part of what he liked about their newest addition. If she didn't trust him, she would've told him.

Ratchet was never one to really care what his patients thought about him. He cared about their well-being, not whether they liked him or not. In all his years he had been a medic, he didn't think twice about doing a procedure such as the one he felt he needed to do on Amelia. Sure, he had others who had been reluctant, but it had never given him pause in the past. He had simply sedated the patient, did the procedure and dealt with the aftermath afterward. Whatever it took to stop his patient's suffering. It was a simple procedure, though it could be viewed as intrusive. Still, he had never hesitated. Until now.

When Amelia had moved away in apparent fear, he had felt his spark sink. A fear had filled him he had never felt before. He was actually…scared that she didn't trust him or that she was afraid of him. But over the months he had known her, he had seen that she was not afraid of him. When he wasn't giving her check-ups or talking about medical procedures, she was completely at ease around him. As she was with any of the Bots, at least when Ironhide wasn't in a bad mood and Jazz wasn't popping out of nowhere and startling her. Whenever she felt out of place with the others, with their current activity, she would help him with his work and she seemed to enjoy the time spent working with him. No, she wasn't afraid of him. And she said she trusted him. That statement alone had made his spark soar momentarily before it sank again when he realized it was not enough for her to be comfortable with the procedure. She was scared of it and he didn't want her to be scared. But she was and he didn't know how to reassure her.

"Slagging femme," Ratchet mumbled, turning to the computer.

Beyond frustrated with trying to figure out why he felt this way about the femme, he began writing a report about what he knew of her condition. So far his scans had shown no problems, save for the missing memory files. All her systems were functioning properly, except, it seems, one of the ones connected to dreaming. Without knowing what the problem was, it was hard to tell if it would cause more abnormalities down the road. One bad line of code was all it took for a problem to turn viral and affect other, more important systems. But a bad line of code would've shown up in other areas by now. It was more likely a missing line of code, which would cause problems that would show up in specific circumstances. Considering her fear of the procedure, he had a sinking feeling about where one such problem could show up. If the problem didn't get fixed soon, he feared it may never get fixed.

"Why can't anything be simple with that femme?" Ratchet sighed. He was growing more and more worried about their newest member the more he pondered on the things that have happened to her. And what was that feeling in his spark whenever he saw her smile?

Sighing again, Ratchet finished typing the report up and then left to join his friends in the main area. He hung back for a moment to observe the femme. She seemed to have made a quick recovery, possibly due to her excitement about today's mission. Her door wings were held high and they moved slightly, indicating her excitement. Her expression was bright as she listened to Ironhide explain the mission to her and Jazz's two cents. Jazz said something and she laughed. She _laughed_. It was as if the incident hadn't even happened.

_She has a good laugh,_ he found himself thinking before he realized it. He blinked at himself before shaking his head.

"Hey Ratch!" Jazz said, noticing the presence of the medic.

"Finally," Ironhide said. "You didn't forget about the mission, did you?"

"No," Ratchet replied. "I don't, however, see why I must go on this mission."

"Oh come on Ratch! It'll be fun!" Amelia said cheerfully.

Ratchet studied the femme carefully. She was at ease, even with his renewed presence near her. He saw that as long as he didn't speak of the procedure, she probably would be at ease. Still, it couldn't be put off forever. A day. That was it. It had already been over a week since her transformation. They couldn't afford to put it off. Even if he had to sedate her. His spark clenched at the idea of forcing it on her, but he couldn't let this go. He feared what could happen if he did.

"I doubt that, it's only routine," Ratchet said.

"Party pooper," Amelia said. "I swear I'm gonna get a smile out of you one of these days."

"Good luck with that femme," Ironhide said, chuckling.

Ratchet sighed as Optimus reminded everyone how important these routine scouting missions were. It was important to find an Energon vein that the 'Cons didn't already have their servos in. Their Energon stock pile would only last so long with the way things were going.

**~Five Minutes Later, Amelia's PoV~**

I stared around at the scenery around us. We were in the middle of a desert, not a green speck insight. Still, I couldn't help but be in awe at the scenery. I hadn't been out of base since changing except for my visit to the farm. This desert was a stark contrast to the green and tree filled scenery I had seen on the farm. We stood in front of a cave, Ratchet holding an Energon detector in his hand.

"I'm getting readings from inside," Ratchet said. "It's weak, which means there may not be much."

"It could be that the natural metals are diluting the signal," I suggested, remembering when Ratchet had said something about that before when Bulkhead and Miko had gone on a scouting mission.

"It could be," Ratchet nodded. "And we can use whatever we can get."

We entered the cave, Ratchet and Ironhide taking the lead as I hung back, looking around. The two Bots were speaking in their native tongue, leaving me out of the conversation. I didn't mind, I understood they probably had some things that they didn't want me to know about. Everyone had their secrets, I suppose. I did startle when Ratchet whacked Ironhide on the head with what appeared to be a wrench. I raised my brow at them.

"Ok, no need to be violent…" I said.

Ratchet grumbled about something, subspacing the wrench while Ironhide rubbed the back of his head. They then went back to scanning as I went back to looking around. The walls of the cave were striped with silvery stripes. Stalagmites and stalactites littered the place, but not enough to make it difficult for us to move around. The cave was damp and there puddles every now and then. It was also really dark, though I could still see just fine. Another thing I noticed was a distinct smell. It was different than anything I had smelled before and was coming from down a path to the right.

"Scrap, the signal's gone," Ratchet growled as I moved closer to the path.

Ironhide turned to look at me and raised his brow at how I was sniffing the air. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"I…smell something…" I said, a perplexed look crossing my face.

"I don't smell anything," Ironhide said.

I barely registered what my two companions were doing as I tried to locate the source of the strange smell. I was only barely aware of moving down the path, following the smell.

"Amelia!" Ratchet called and I heard him and Ironhide begin to follow me. "Where do you think you're going?"

"To find what I smell," I said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Is that really necessary?" Ironhide asked.

"Yes," I said, moving further down the path.

I followed the smell for what felt like hours, the two mechs following behind me, lest they lose me. When I finally found the source, I stared in awe. Blue crystals were scattered around a portion of the cave. It wasn't much, but it was definitely what I had been smelling.

"By the AllSpark," Ratchet said.

"Well, I found out what the smell was," I said, sniffing at one of the Energon crystals.

"You can…smell Energon…" Ratchet realized.

"That's quite a nose you got," Ironhide said, putting a hand on my head in a show of affection.

I couldn't help but grin, even as we began harvesting the Energon crystals to take back to base.


	15. Glitching

**A/N: **Hey guys! I'm back with another chapter! I've been working on it all day! It's almost three o'clock in the morning cause I was determined to get it done before sleeping. Lol. Yeah, yeah, I know I _should_ be sleeping. But oh well. Too late now. *grin*

**Luna Prime-Awesoomeness: **Sometimes it's the small details that matter in our lives. :) Thanks!

**Princess Thil Galel: **Bloodhound? Hey now no liking Amelia to a dog! Lol. She just has a really good sense of smell. *grin* And don't worry. I can be a hopeless romantic at times as well.

**Vivian Hale: **Lol. Thanks.

**Sailor Shinzo: **What is it with people and bloodhounds? She ain't a dog! Lol. Glad you liked it.

**Queen Lilliandil: **Your wish is my command. *bows drastically like Genie from Aladin* Lol.

Here's the chapter!

**Chapter 15: Glitching**

**~Amelia's PoV~**

I woke up the next morning at a ridiculous hour. I had gone to sleep early to avoid Ratchet's nighttime check-up and possible more talk of procedure so naturally I didn't sleep until the usual time. I checked my chrono and it said that it was only five o'clock in the morning. I yawned, stretching out before getting up and walking over to my door. I peered out into the hallway and once I was satisfied that no one was around, I left my room, tip-toeing past Ratchet's quarters.

I sighed once I got out of the quarters area and hadn't been stopped by anyone. I went to the main area and found myself face-to-face with the very Bot I had avoided last night. I stopped short of my destination and waited for the lecture to come.

"Amelia," Ratchet said, his arms crossed.

"Hi…" I said, my voice small.

"Don't 'hi' me, femme," Ratchet said. "You avoided me last night, knowing that I needed to give you a check-up."

"I…" I found no words to defend myself. I knew I shouldn't have avoided him like that, but I was frightened he would make me go through with the procedure.

**~Normal PoV~**

Ratchet sighed, letting his arms fall to his sides. "Amelia," he said, placing a servo on her shoulder. His other servo was kept carefully out of her sight as he brought a syringe with a sedative out of his subspace.

Amelia looked away and Ratchet felt his spark clench. He pushed the strange feelings aside though. He couldn't let this go.

"I know you are frightened," he said softly. "But if I do not find what is wrong, it could have some damaging effects on your other systems. If it goes unchecked…" His spark clenched again and he couldn't bring himself to voice it out loud.

As he spoke, Ratchet watched as Amelia's optics widened as she heard him speaking of the procedure. He started to move to sedate her before she had a chance to get away, but she must've seen what he was up to, because she abruptly darted away, leaving him behind.

"Nice job, Ratchet," he growled to himself.

He placed the sedative back in his subspace and sighed. He had woken up early because he knew the femme would be up around this hour. She seemed to have a set amount of hours she recharged, as did many of the Bots, and he knew the general recharge cycle for all his teammates. His spark ached at the fact that he was forced to force this on her, but he knew Amelia enough to know she wouldn't just run away from him, she'd argue it out with him first. As he feared, the glitch was starting to affect her processor a little more.

"**Optimus,"** he commed his leader, though he knew the Bot wouldn't usually be up for another hour.

"**What is it, Ratchet?" **Optimus answered about a minute later, his previously offline systems taking a little time to catch up to the wake-up call.

"**You recall me telling you about Amelia's glitch? We may have a problem," **Ratchet told his leader as he went to the med bay.

There was a pause on the other end of the link. **"What kind of problem?" **Optimus asked.

"**The glitch is starting to affect her processor," **Ratchet said. **"I brought the procedure up with her this morning and instead of arguing it out with me, as she usually does when she doesn't like something, she just ran off."**

"**That isn't like her," **Optimus agreed. **"Is it repairable?"**

"**If I can perform the procedure by the end of the day, I should be able to repair the damage as well as fix the problem," **Ratchet said, entering med bay. **"There's just one problem."**

"**Amelia isn't being cooperative," **Optimus stated more than asked. **"I will wake Ironhide, she is closest to him other than you and myself. She may listen to him."**

"**Normally, yes," **Ratchet agreed. **"However, the glitch is influencing her actions. I've prepared a sedative, but the problem is getting it into her systems so I can do the procedure."**

"**Understood," **Optimus replied.

Ratchet knew the conversation was over and that Optimus would do everything in his power to bring Amelia to the med bay. He began preparing what he would need for the procedure, ignoring the pain in his spark when he thought about the frightened expression on the femme's face. He had to focus. One wrong step and they would lose her. If the glitch continued to run rampant, it could very well offline her. But not before causing a whole lot of other issues for the femme and the rest of them.

He sighed as his optics shuddered. His spark ached at the thought of losing Amelia. It still baffled him why, but he couldn't focus on it. First, he had to help the femme recover. If she would let him.

**~Amelia's PoV~**

I don't know what I was thinking when I had run from Ratchet. I had been intending to talk myself into letting him do the procedure, yet when he brought it up, I didn't even think about anything other than getting away. And now no matter how hard I tried to rationalize the situation, my processor drew a blank. All I could think of was finding a place to hide from the world and avoid the procedure. A small part of me knew something was terribly wrong, but it was drastically overshadowed by the part that wanted me to hide.

I ducked behind a corner when I saw Optimus walking down a hallway, looking frantically for a place to hide. Before I realized it I ran straight into the chest of a mech.

"Whoa there little lady," Jazz said, catching me before I fell. "What's the rush?"

I thought quickly. I couldn't tell him I was hiding from Ratchet. "U-um, I..." I tried to come up with a good reason, but my processor stalled and I stumbled.

"Easy there," Jazz said, catching me again. "We should get you to Ratchet."

"NO!" I hissed and clawed at Jazz's face, causing him to release me in surprise. I then took off again, transforming so I could go faster.

"Hey!" Jazz called.

I ignored him as I drove away. I growled. I couldn't trust anyone. Everyone was the enemy. They all wanted me to go through with that procedure. I couldn't stand it. I had to get away. Hide.

_There! _ I thought when I saw an air duct just big enough for me to fit in. The only Bot who would be able to follow me is Arcee and she was still away on a camping trip with Jack. Well, really they were scouting for Energon, but either way.

I transformed and opened the duct before crawling inside. There wasn't enough room for me to turn around, but I could crawl forward and that's exactly what I did.

**~Normal PoV~**

Optimus had left his quarters after he had finished his conversation with Ratchet. He had already commed Ironhide and told him the situation and to get the sedative from Ratchet, knowing it was best to bring her already in stasis rather than drag a fighting Amelia to med bay first. He was deeply worried about their newest addition. She never seemed to get a break it seems and now things seemed worse for her. He had to wonder why Primus would allow this to happen to her. What had she done to deserve the difficulties she faced?

He sighed, shaking his head clear of those thoughts. He was just being overly concerned. As long as he and Ironhide could get her to the med bay she would live. Still, he worried. He had admittedly grown close to the femme, she was like a little sister. She was always willing to listen to him talk about Cybertron's past and she was always trying to get him to smile.

"NO!" he heard the familiar voice hiss at someone and he picked up his pace.

He turned a corner to find a shocked Jazz and the femme driving away at a dangerously high speed. He walked up to his old friend, who looked utterly confused.

"What's goin' on?" Jazz immediately asked, seeing the troubled expression his leader's face. "Amelia's acting differently…"

"She has a glitch in her processor, Jazz," Optimus said. "It is impairing her judgment. Ratchet can fix it, but we need to get her to the med bay."

"Dat ain't gonna be easy," Jazz said, rubbing his cheek where one of the femme's claws caught him.

"Optimus!" Ironhide's voice had both mechs looking up. "Any luck on locating Amelia?" he asked, concern clear in his voice and expression as he handed Optimus and Jazz a couple extra sedative filled syringes Ratchet had given him.

"She just ran off this way, come on," Jazz said and led the way after the fleeing femme.

Quickly, the three mechs ran down the hall and turned down the one they had seen Amelia go down. All three were searching for any clue as to where the femme had gone. They stopped when they came across the open air duct. Sharing a look, the three split up to cover more ground. They all knew more or less what was at stake and they all knew she could get anywhere using the air ducts.

**~Amelia's PoV~**

I crawled through the air duct, my door wings held flat against my back. I had to find a safe place to exit before the smallness of the space drove me crazy. Not to mention my door wings were getting sore. I spotted an exit nearby and peered out it. Seeing and hearing no one outside, I removed the grate and made my way out of the duct.

Relieved when I could allow my door wings to settle to their normal position, I stood up in triumph. Not a bot in sight. Despite my processor not functioning properly, so said a small part of me, I could easily recognize the room as a storage closet. Boxes sat around, labeled in Cybertronian, and shelves covered the walls, filled with various items.

The door opened and I started. Standing in it was Optimus and he spotted me immediately.

"Amelia," he said. Had I been in my right state of mind I would've seen the concern etching his features. He took a step closer and I growled, tensing.

Optimus paused, but never took his optics off me. "Come on, Amelia," he said. "You need to see Ratchet."

A warm feeling flashed through my spark at the mention of the doc bot, but it didn't register in my processor. Instead of going with him as my spark pleaded, I crouched low, letting out a low, threatening growl.

"Amelia, I don't want to have to force you," Optimus said, but the meaning of those words were lost on me.

Seeing the syringe in the bot's servo, I snarled and sprang into action. I pounced on the large red and blue bot, taking him off guard as he fell back onto the ground. I quickly leapt off him, taking off down the hallway beyond.

**~Normal PoV~**

Jazz searched around for the elusive femme. She was as hard to find in this place as a needle in a scrap pile. A large scrap pile. He could only be thankful that Optimus had put the base on lockdown, so she couldn't leave the base. At least, not easily. Of course, if she knew her way around the ducts she could get out that way, but with her processor glitching he doubted she would even think of that.

"**Jazz! She's headed your way!" **Optimus's urgent voice came through the open comlink the three bots hunting for her kept open.

"**I hear ya boss bot," **Jazz said.

He continued his search, keeping an optic out. Sure enough, five minutes later the white and purple femme came bounding down the hallway. She froze, however when she spotted him. She then took off another way.

"**Ironhide! Headed your way!" **Jazz commed his old friend, chasing after the femme.

"**I'm ready for ya," **Ironhide said.

Ironhide had been searching a storage closet, but now he moved to the doorway, waiting. He hated the fact that he would have to use force on the small femme, but like the others he knew what was at risk. He simply cared too much to allow her to let herself fall into self-destructive habits. She was sort of like the daughter he never had. She proved to be a great student when it came to fighting and she loved listening to his war stories. It reminded him of raising Bumblebee in some ways. Despite being an adult, she was so naïve and innocent, partly due to her lack of memories from before her time with the Autobots.

Ironhide watched the hallway in the direction he knew the femme would be coming from. He just had to restrain her long enough to get the sedative into her systems. He only found it a little difficult to believe that one femme could cause this much trouble before the sun was even up. At times she could be as tenacious as a youngling.

"**Heads up 'Hide!"** Jazz called through the comlink.

Ironhide acknowledged and prepared for his strike. He watched and waited. When he spotted the femme running down the hall, he crouched slightly. When she was close enough, he leapt out of his hiding place and tackled her to the ground. They brawled some on the floor, him trying to hold her still and her fighting against him.

"Calm down femme!" Ironhide grunted, struggling to get the sedative into her.

Amelia growled and kicked out at his hand. Her foot struck and the sedative flew from Ironhide's servo. Ironhide quickly maneuvered to where he pinned her legs to the ground with one leg. Amelia swiped a clawed servo at him, but he caught it with one servo as he held down her other with his other. He pinned her second servo to the ground as she growled again, snarling.

"Jazz! The sedative!" Ironhide called.

"On it, 'Hide," Jazz said and quickly administered the sedative.

Amelia squeaked as the syringe was pressed to an exposed cable in her neck. Within moments she was offline and Ironhide was able to move off of her. His spark ached to see the femme like this and he hoped that Ratchet would indeed be able to solve the problem that vexed their newest member. She wasn't really officially an Autobot, but she might as far as he was concerned.

"Well, let's get her ta Ratch," Jazz said.

"Yeah," Ironhide sighed, bending down and lifting the small femme into his arms, careful of her door wings. He noted that the connections for her door wings were strained, probably from where she had crawled through the ducts. She would've had to force them to lay flat on her back.

"Poor femme," Jazz said as they began to walk. "She don' deserve this."

"I know, Jazz," Ironhide said. "Let's hope Ratchet can make it right."

"Ya know, Ah think da doc bot's got a thing for our little femme," Jazz said. "Have ya noticed how he looks at her when he thinks no one's lookin'?"

"I've noticed," Ironhide said, grinning. He tightened his hold on the little femme. "He doesn't really realize it yet though."

_She seems to be forming a thing for him too,_ Ironhide thought. _Ratchet just better hope he doesn't break her spark._

When they made it to the med bay, Ratchet was ready and waiting. Ironhide laid the femme carefully on a medical berth, being careful not to put too much stress on her door wings.

"She crawled through the air ducts," Ironhide told Ratchet. "Her door wings are a little strained."

"Noted," Ratchet said. "I would appreciate you two to wait outside. I will inform you when I am done."

Ironhide nodded. He pat Amelia on the arm as if it may give her some comfort before leaving with Jazz. As soon as the door shut behind them, Ratchet got to work. His spark clenched at the sight of the prone form laying on the medical berth, but he pressed on. He probed around her dormant processor, seeking out the problems caused by the glitch and the original problem itself. What he found had him shutting his optics briefly. The glitch had severely damaged the coding for rational and logical thinking as well as corrupting some of the personality files. That would account for her dashing off without so much as a word.

"Oh, femme," Ratchet sighed. "You've been through too much for this." He spared a glance at Amelia's face briefly, his optics soft as he gazed upon her peaceful and unaware features. He hoped she would forgive them for forcing this on her. He hadn't realized how far the problem had traveled already.

He turned back to his work, repairing the files and moving on. The glitch had been starting to affect another system, but he was able to easily stop it in its tracks. He then searched for the original source. He knew it was connected to dreaming, so he searched the files that were connected to that, even if only remotely. The problem was as suspected, a missing line of code. Seemingly unimportant to anyone without knowledge of what such a thing could cause. He doubted that, after this morning, anyone on his team would ever think such a thing was harmless.

**~Several Hours Later, Amelia's PoV~**

My systems came online slowly. My processor took a little bit of time to catch up to the rest of my systems, as if it was recovering from a long nap. I shifted a little and realized I was on my back. Odd, I never slept on my back. Not even as a human.

"Amelia?" a hesitant voice reached my audios.

I slowly onlined my optics to find Ratchet's concerned face looking at me. "R-Ratchet?"

"I'm here, Amelia," Ratchet said, gently placing a hand on my forehead and stroking my helm gently.

My spark warmed slightly at the small gesture of affection as I tried to think of why Ratchet was here. Then I realized where we were. Med bay. I tried to remember why I was in the med bay. It took a moment, but when I did my optics widened. I had caused them such trouble.

"Ratchet…" I said. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault, Amelia," Ratchet said, removing his hand. He helped me sit up. "Come on, I need to tend to your door wings. Ironhide said you crawled through the air ducts."

"Oh ow, yeah and they're sore too," I said. "My whole back is sore. I'm not used to being on it. I dunno what I was thinking when I did that."

"You weren't," Ratchet said as he tended my door wings. "Your processor was glitched. You couldn't process logically or properly for that matter."

"Oh," I said. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have refused you to do the procedure. If you had found the problem earlier, that wouldn't have happened."

"And don't you forget it," Ratchet said, lightly whacking me on the head. "Next time, tell me when something seems off."

"Yeah, yeah," I said, smirking.

We fell into silence as he finished up on my door wings. He also did _something_ that made my back less sore, but not being a medic I wasn't sure what.

"Ratchet?" I asked after a few minutes of silence. He looked up at me and our faces were so close one would barely be able to fit a hand between. I blinked, slightly startled and he backed up, looking a little sheepish. I tried to reel in my urge to just hug the bot as my spark pulsed slightly in my chest. I was successful, thankfully.

"Yes, Amelia?" Ratchet asked.

My door wings moved slightly. "Did you happen to find…?" I trialed off.

"Why you can't remember anything from before?" Ratchet asked and I nodded, looking at him hopefully. He sighed. "I did not. I'm sorry, Amelia."

"That's ok, Ratch," I said. "I'm just glad I'm not acting insane anymore." I smiled as Ratchet chuckled.

"I am glad you are back to yourself as well," Ratchet said. "Now get some recharge. You've had a long day."

"Night Ratch," I said before laying down on my stomach, my door wings resting in a comfortable position.

"Night Amelia," Ratchet said, patting me on the head. Unconsciously I leaned my head into the touch, a smile on my face, before drifting off into recharge.


	16. TMI is Unhealthy

**A/N:** Yay! Update! It's been hectic guys, I'm sorry it took so long to get this chapter done.

Speaking of the hecticness. Update on my condition. I have partial amnesia. I don't remember everything all the time. Some things I just simply don't remember, others I will remember at one point in time and not at another point in time. I'm not one hundred percent sure what happened cause I am still trying to get a hold of that stinking report about it. Then I gotta figure out how I'm going to fix everything. Which not everything is fixable, I don't think. My mom's boyfriend is furious at me and my mom yelled at me and I'm trying and I can't handle the stress she was putting on me. My sister got her to calm down, though. On the brightside she is turning to God for help with all this and maybe that's the purpose of this happening. I don't know how to handle this, but I am trying. I've never been in an accident before, I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO! But my mom was yelling at me like I should've already known I was supposed to do these things that I didn't know. I'm NOT perfect. I'm NOT immune to stupid decisions. And if you don't want me to drive, DON'T LEAVE ME THE KEYS AND TELL ME THEIR IN THE SPOT WHERE YOU TEND TO LEAVE THINGS YOU WANT ME TO USE! Or at least tell me why. I CAN'T READ MINDS! I don't know why people think I can…

Anyway, aside from Mom yelling at me and making my stress levels sky rocket, my best friends aren't answering my calls. I've been trying to return his call since Tuesday morning. I've left three messages, but I have called about a billion times. I don't really know how many times I called, I lost track and forgot some. So yeah. I am starting to really hate this time of year. _Something _always happens…

Other than those two things, my recovery has gone well. I've been drinking tea, taking my meds prescribed to me by the doctor and following my sister's orders to the best of my ability. Getting rest, writing, watching TV shows and forgetting what happens on them and rewatching them, playing video games with my brother(he's actually helping me out, and at first he didn't even know I was in an accident…and he still helped! Surprised me). I still find it hard to read so I am behind on my favorite stories. Hopefully I will be able to catch up on those eventually.

But anyway, I am not doing author replies in chapter until I recover, so if you want a response make sure your private messaging is enabled and you are logged in when you review. Unless I feel very compelled to respond to you, otherwise I will not respond if I can't PM my response. I won't respond to everybody either, as if all I'd be saying is 'thanks' or 'glad you liked it' I won't bother because my head is not all together right now. It's nothing against those who don't leave reviews I can say more to, I love you guys, I really do. My head's just messed up right now. I'm surprised I can write. But I suppose I can because it _is_ second nature to me. That's the best explanation I can come up with anyway. . Sorry if there are blatant mistakes in the chapter as well. As I said, my head is messed up right now.

Oh! And one of my reviewers for A World Apart inspired a drawing and I drew it. I am going to start a devianart for my drawings so I will let you know when it is up. In the meantime it is on my photobucket so there is a link to the picture on my profile. As a note, hat is duct tape around my head in it. The reviewer said chocolate fixes everything and if that doesn't work, try duct tape. Lol. So yeah. Duct tape, chocolate, tea, laptop, music, cell phone, game controller, and Bible. :) It's at the top of my profile, before my story stats.

Anywho, this chapter contains spoilers for the episode T.M.I. The one with the data cylinder. For this one, since I can and have it still make sense at least to my currently messed up mind, I kept it in Amelia's point of view. Since we've seen it from a viewer's point of view, which is third person, I thought we could look at it from a different point of view. Well, that's what I thought anyway. Of course, my head is messed up right now, so yeah…

Anywho. Sorry for the extremely long author's note. You may get those a lot these next few weeks as I vent my frustrations and keep you updated on my recovery.

Here's the chapter! Hope you enjoy it!

**Chapter 16: T.M.I. is Bad for Bulky's Health**

**~Amelia's PoV~**

I woke up a few days later still in the med bay. Ratchet wanted to be sure that everything really was right in my systems this time, lest another incident occurred again. I did complain that I wasn't allowed to leave the med bay at all during this time, but I didn't argue with him about the importance. The last thing I wanted was to go crazy again. Well…not _that_ kind of crazy anyway.

I yawned as I stretched out as I usually did when I woke up.

"Good morning," Ratchet said, walking over, a datapad in his hand.

"Mornin'," I said, smiling a little bit. Something about being greeted in the morning by Ratchet just seemed right. I couldn't imagine why, though.

"How are you feeling?" Ratchet asked as I sat up.

"Good and well rested," I said.

"Good," Ratchet said. "You are free to leave the med bay today, right after I run a couple more scans."

"Yay," I said, smiling. "No offense Doc Bot, I just don't like being in one room all the time…"

"No Bot does," Ratchet said, smiling a little.

Ratchet did the couple more scans and, not finding anything wrong, he allowed me to leave the med bay. I went to the main area where I was greeted by the other Bots and welcomed back to the world of the sane. I also apologized for the trouble I caused and was forgiven. Any and all wounds would heal in time, including the scratch on Jazz's face from where I clawed him. I felt bad about that, along with everything else I did during my temporary insaneness. But he assured me he didn't hold it against me.

"No worries," Jazz said, draping an arm over my shoulders in a sort of brotherly way. "No one here blames ya for those things."

"Jazz is right, Amelia," Optimus said, placing a hand on my shoulder. "Your processor was glitched, it is not your fault."

"Hmm," I said, wanting to believe their words, but unsure.

"So who wants to watch the monster truck rally Bulky and I went to last week?" Miko asked excitedly. She was currently the only one of the human children here. Jack and Raf were both doing something with their families.

Just after she finished asking, a beeping sound started on the monitor as Ratchet came in. Turns out the scanners had picked up the signature of something called a data cylinder. Some kind of cylinder that contained ancient knowledge. I thought it sounded interesting, but Miko said it was boring so she went to watch TV with Bulkhead.

"Can I help get it?" I asked, excitedly.

The Bots all shared a look and I had a feeling they wanted me to sit this one out. My suspicions were confirmed when Optimus spoke.

"You have just recovered from your glitch," Optimus said. "I'd prefer if you get some more rest before joining us in the field."

"Aw," I said, door wings drooping.

"Don't worry," Jazz said, patting me on the back. "Ya probr'ly won' miss an'thin'."

"Ok…" I said.

Most of the Bots went to fetch the cylinder. When I asked why everyone went, Ratchet told me that it was quite possible for the Cons to go after it as well. Cylinders were very important artifacts to Cybertronians, as they contained the wisdom of the ancients. Whoever the ancients are. I assumed they were very old Cybertronians who were very wise and smart.

"Come on Amelia," Ratchet said. "You can help me do inventory while they're gone."

"Ok," I said and followed after Ratchet.

It didn't take us long to take inventory. Our Energon stockpile was in need of restock at some point soon, but we would have to locate Energon first. Medical supplies were well stocked and so were spare parts. The government was nice enough apparently to supply the Bots with parts and equipment to build things they needed. They also supplied money for food for our human friends.

Speaking of the government. I was supposed to meet Agent Fowler in a week. It was decided that I couldn't be kept a secret for too long. I didn't remember why I was wary to meet him in the first place, anyway. That bit of information was lost with so many of my memories.

After we were done with inventory, we went back out to the main area to check on the others' progress. Miko and Bulkhead were watching TV.

"Hey guys! Check out the monster truck rally Miko took me to last week," Bulkhead said.

"I compiled highlights with my cellphone!" Miko said happily, holding her cellphone in the air.

"Innocent vehicles battling for the pleasure of human spectators?" Ratchet asked as I blinked at the screen. We both shuddered at the same time. "Blood sport." Ratchet said, waving his hand dismissively as he moved on to the computers.

"Yeah!" Miko and Bulkhead cheered.

"You could be helping Optimus in the field right now," Ratchet told Bulkhead as he looked over some data on the computer.

_I could be helping him too,_ I thought wistfully. I hated when I wasn't allowed to help. It made me feel useless.

"Aw, he doesn't need my help to search for some ancient educational thingamabob," Bulkhead said, waving his hand in dismissal.

Ratchet shook his head and began lecturing about the 'thingamabob', even changing their TV to show an image of it. The 'thingamabob' was a Cybertronian data cylinder and it apparently held vast knowledge about…something. Dozens of these things were created during the Golden Age, that is before the war, each containing the subtotal of Cybertron's knowledge on any given subject. I briefly wondered if they had anything about Earth in one of those. When war broke out, the cylinders were hidden throughout the galaxies to keep away from the Decepticons.

"Detecting one here, on Earth, is the opportunity of a…" Ratchet was saying, but was cut off by Miko's groan.

"T.M.I. dude," Miko said.

"Switch it back!" Bulkhead said. "I want to see the hoedown showdown!"

_The what?_ I thought as I shook my head at the two as the com beeped.

"Ratchet!" Optimus's voice came through the com. "Decepticon ambush! The cylinder is at risk. We require back-up!"

"Back-up is what I'm built for," Bulkhead said. He punched his fist into his palm before running through the ground bridge that I activated.

"Go bend some fenders Bulk," Miko said.

"I have an important mission for you too Miko," Ratchet said.

"Really?" Miko asked, excitedly. Then she was handed a mop and she groaned.

I chuckled and turned back to the controls for the ground bridge. I turned the ground bridge off and then joined Ratchet at the monitor.

"So, I'm curious," I said, looking at an image of the data cylinder. "What kind of information could be in these cylinders?"

"Anything," Ratchet said. "Medicine, mythology, you name it."

I frowned and tilted my head. "Do you think it is possible that there could be something that may get my memories back?"

Ratchet was silent a moment. "It's possible," he said, a sigh in his voice. "But it is also possible that it is not contained in this cylinder."

"Ok," I said. "I was just wondering."

"Ratchet! Come in!" Miko's voice suddenly came through the com channel.

"Miko?" I asked, raising a brow plate as Ratchet turned to where the girl was last seen.

"This is an emergency channel, we need to keep it open for the other…wait," Ratchet said as we both realized a small, but important fact. "Where are you?"

"Doi! I'm with the thingamabob!" Miko said.

"The data cylinder?" I asked.

"Yes! Can you bridge it out of here?" Miko said.

"I'll reactivate arrival coordinates," Ratchet said, walking over to the controls. He activated the ground bridge.

"Dude! Can you open it any closer?" Miko asked.

"Supply coordinates," Ratchet said.

"Uh, fifty yards?" Miko said, sounding a bit unsure.

"Precise coordinates," Ratchet said.

There was silence from the other end and we looked at each other. I shifted on my feet anxiously.

"Should I…?" I said.

"No," Ratchet said. "Stay put."

"But…" I said.

"You are not going into the thick of a battle," Ratchet said. "It's bad enough that Miko went."

I 'hmph'ed in defeat. Luckily enough, it wasn't too long before the Bots came back anyway. Unluckily, Bulkhead apparently needed his head checked. I guess the cylinder zapped him when Miko kicked it. Optimus, Arcee, Bumblebee, Jazz and Ironhide went back out to try to track down the Cons that took the cylinder while Bulkhead was confined to med bay for Ratchet to scan his head.

"I helped lose that thing, I want to help find it!" Bulkhead said. "I need to get back in the field with Optimus."

"Uh-uh," I said, me and Ratchet both pushing him back onto the berth.

"You're under my watch now, Optimus's orders," Ratchet said. "And running a full scan of your neural net would be a wiser use of your time."

"Come on doc, there's nothing up there to scan," Bulkhead said, casually plucking the cable off his head. He stood up.

"He seems fine to me," Miko said.

"I seemed fine before I went crazy," I reminded.

"True, but still," Bulkhead said. "I should be out there helping."

Ratchet gave an exasperated sigh. "Well, if you insist on making yourself useful. You can help Miko tidy up." He handed Bulkhead a mop.

"Argh! He's mad with power!" Miko said as Ratchet walked away.

Bulkhead laughed and I couldn't suppress my own laughter as I placed a hand over my mouth.

"That's Ratchet," Bulkhead said. "Null vector squared alright."

"What?" Miko and I asked.

"Hey, we got any paint?" Bulkhead asked.

"Art project? Cool!" Miko said.

As they went to find paint, I decided to lounge in the med bay with Ratchet. He didn't mind, it allowed him to keep an optic on me to make sure I had fully recovered from my glitch. I listened to some music while waiting as well. If it bothered Ratchet, he didn't say anything.

"Hey Ratchet, what does 'null vector squared' mean?" I asked randomly.

"The null vector is a vector where all its components are zeroes," Ratchet said. He turned to look at me. "Any reason you want to know?"

"Bulkhead said it," I said, raising a brow plate. "It confused me."

"Hmm," Ratchet said, looking thoughtful.

"Hey guys!" Miko called, running into the med bay. "You need to come see what Bulk's painting in here."

Ratchet and I shared a look before following Miko to the main area. When we got there, there were some kind of symbols painted on the walls and Bulkhead was rambling something about one-third r cubed being r-dr-r. Whatever that meant.

"That's not art, that's science!" Ratchet said.

Half an hour later, the others were back and we were all gathered, including Miko, in the med bay. Bulkhead had been convinced to allow Ratchet to scan his head, so he was on a berth with a wire attached to his head. On the monitor was an image of the scan of his head. There was a spot that was red.

"This hotspot you see here," Ratchet said, indicating the spot that was red in the image. "It's information. Data. Living energy."

"Hold on!" Miko said. "It's alive. It's on fire. And it's in Bulkhead's brain?"

"Chill Miko," Bulkhead said. "The data's only inhabiting a fraction of my brain." He tapped his head with one of his large fingers. "Infindesmal by standard neural-net densities. Wait…how do I know all that?"

"Based on what we witnessed during our skirmish," Optimus said. "The living data must've been programmed to eject when it sensed unauthorized access."

"A security measure?" I asked more than said. Ratchet nodded.

"It would've jettisoned heaven-ward, lost to the stars," Optimus said.

"Except my fat engine block got in the way," Bulkhead said.

"Every Con there made a grab for it," Arcee said. "But the cylinder doesn't go off till Miko touches it?"

"The cylinders originated from Cybertron's Golden Age, pre-dating the Autobot-Decepticon division," Ratchet said.

"They wouldn't see any Cybertronian as a threat, then," Ironhide said.

Ratchet nodded. "Only alien life-forms, such as humans," he said.

Bumblebee whirled something, asking what we were looking at. Ever since my change, I had been able to understand what he was saying. Ratchet had told me that was normal, considering I was now Cybertronian. No one knew yet why Raf could understand him as well.

"Are we staring at genius? Or gibberish?" Arcee asked.

"I do not wish to falsely rally anyone's hopes," Ratchet said. "But these equations appear to be the formula for a synthetic Energon."

Bumblebee cheered, throwing a fist into the air in victory. Everyone got perked up by the news. This formula could apparently solve a whole lot of problems, as Energon provided our fuel, our ammo, and our life force. It could give us the edge we need to turn the tide of the war against the Decepticons. Or, as Ratchet so happily pointed out, giving us the key to revitalizing Cybertron. As Arcee said, we got the goods.

Still…I was a little worried.

A little while later, Bulkhead was sitting on the floor painting equations on large sheets of metal while Arcee and Bumblebee brought each sheet to Ratchet for him to log. Ratchet was keeping a close optic on Bulkhead's brain while I nearly hovered over him, worried about the well-being of my friend. Jazz and Ironhide had gone out on patrol. Miko was standing on the second level, trying to convince Bulkhead to take a break, to no avail. And Optimus was standing next to Ratchet, like me, concerned over Bulkhead's well-being. Ratchet was actually pulling up something of concern.

"This is Bulkhead's neural net as you saw it earlier," Ratchet said, showing us the scan from earlier. He brought up another image. "This scan was recorded just minutes ago." The red color moved across the normal blue and was nearly filling the area of his brain. "It is as I feared. The data appears to be actively, and aggressively, rewriting Bulkhead's neural net."

I made a small sound. "So…Bulk won't be Bulk by the time this is over?" I asked, worry clear in my voice.

Ratchet sighed. "I had hoped he was purging the data," he said. "But it appears he's only transcribing it as it…"

"Consumes his mind," Optimus finished.

"By the time Bulkhead finishes the formula," Ratchet said. "His own thoughts, his memories, could be wiped clean."

"Can't we stop it?" I asked.

"If we do that, good bye synthetic Energon," Arcee said, crossing her arms.

"I don't exactly have instant access to the wisdom of the ancients," Ratchet said.

"I will not allow another one of our own to be sacrificed, no matter the costs," Optimus said.

"Couldn't we get the data to go back into the cylinder?" I asked.

"It's possible," Ratchet said.

"But how are we supposed to get the cylinder back from the Decepticons?" Arcee asked.

"Megatron will bring it to us," Optimus said.

Optimus, Arcee and Bumblebee went to try to get the cylinder from Megatron with a transponder rigged to give off the energy of the data to lore him out. Bulkhead continued painting, Ratchet continued monitoring him and recording the equations that I brought him from Bulkhead. My door wings felt as if they were stuck in a sort of drooped position. Miko continued to try to talk to Bulkhead. At some point she started dragging her amps to the second level, just above where Bulkhead was working. I was putting a metal panel down when I heard her strum her guitar and went to see what she was up to.

"What is that?" Bulkhead asked.

"Metal!" Miko said. "You love this song!"

"I'm trying to concentrate!" Bulkhead said.

"Argh! You're starting to sound just like Ratchet!" Miko exclaimed.

"Who?" Bulkhead asked and I could feel my spark sink.

As Miko went to talk to Ratchet, or at least I'm assuming that's what she was doing when she ran over to where he was at, I sighed. I could feel my door wings droop more as I walked to where Ratchet was. Miko was leaving, looking very depressed, much how I felt, just as I got back. I sighed and sat down in a corner, wrapping my arms around my legs. Ratchet took one look at me before sighing and walking over. He crouched and put a hand on mine.

"It will be alright, Amelia," he said. "Optimus is working on getting the cylinder."

"I know," I said. "It's just depressing. I don't want to lose my friend."

Ratchet patted my hand and nodded in understanding. He didn't say anything, probably not really knowing what to say, as he stood and went back to his work. He went to get the next metal panel himself, apparently letting me rest for a little while. I wondered if this is what the others had felt when I had glitched. Ratchet had said if they hadn't gotten me to the med bay when they did, it was quite possible that I wouldn't be around anymore, or at least not me.

As Ratchet worked, I sat and prayed that everything would work out in the end. It was only an hour later when we discovered that Bulkhead and Miko had abandoned base. Their ground bridge coordinates were logged in the computer, so Ratchet was able to get as I called Optimus to tell him. He had us bridge them back, along with Jazz and Ironhide from their patrol, and then bridge them to the coordinates.

Minutes later, we were all gathered in the med bay once again, Bulkhead laying on a berth in a coma-like state. Ratchet was scanning his head as we all waited in worry and concern. Miko was the most depressed and I had a feeling she was blaming herself.

"The data has been fully expelled," Ratchet informed us. "But Bulkhead remains completely unresponsive."

"Cause the energy took Bulkhead's mind with it," Miko said sadly. "Heavenward. Lost to the stars." She sniffled. "It's my fault you'll never know the rest of the formula. And it's my fault Bulkhead's gone forever."

"Miko," Optimus said. "Your quick thinking prevented the formula from falling into Decepticon hands."

"If anyone would've backed that play," Arcee said. "It's Bulkhead."

"Hey! I was like this for a few days when I changed, wasn't I?" I said, trying to cheer her up. "I woke up. Who says Bulk won't? He's still alive. Where there's breath, there's hope. Right?"

"It's simply too early to know the extent of his condition," Ratchet said. "Something as simple as a familiar sight or smell, or even a sound, could trigger Bulkhead's awakening."

Miko seemed to get an idea from that and she quickly asked me to help her with something. She had me help her move her amps in here and she grabbed her guitar. She plugged the instrument into her amp, tuned it and then strummed a note. The sound echoed through the base and for a moment we thought it wasn't going to work. But then he woke up. Slowly, but he woke up. Then he sat up and air guitared the same note, trying to imitate the sound. Which I supposed was pretty good for air guitar.

"I love that song!" Bulkhead said.

I grinned as everyone smiled when Bulkhead recognized us all again.

"Welcome back, Bulk," I said, door wings perked up for the first time since I fully realized Bulkhead's mind was being eaten by data.

Everything was back to normal. Well, as normal as it ever was.


	17. A Cause for Concern

**A/N: **Ok, I know I had said I was gonna get a side story of Christmasy proportions up for this story, but it just didn't get done in time. So it will probably get tweaked and rewritten to fit more into wherever this story is at next Christmas and be posted next Christmas. I was mostly focused on the Christmas chapters for A World Apart and then my brain kinda died for writing there a little while in the Christmas season. And it's taken me longer to write this chapter than any other chapter as well. But school starts back again for me in like eight hours so my brain will definitely be back out of hibernation. Christmas season just does not make good writing atmosphere. Especially when you are dealing with car wreck aftermath and doing dishes half the time and spending time with family. So sorry for no Christmas special for this story. So much for that idea.

And also sorry it has taken so long for this chapter. As I said, Christmas season=temp block on non-season-related stuff. But as I said, things should go back to normal soon. And I have like four different new stories I will be writing eventually. One won't be started until A World Apart is finished for sure, as it is the sequel to it. The others I might start writing, but I won't start posting them till I have several chapters done of them at least, that way I can post them whenever I feel like it. Instead of what I'm doing currently.

Anyway, on with the Author Replies!

**Princess Thil Galel: **Aha! Yeah, I loved that too. *grin*

**4elementsfan4621: **Aw man I'm sorry to hear that. Really makes you appreciate life when you realize just how fragile we are, huh? Glad you like my story.

**Vivian Hale: **Eh, at this point I doubt it will. Sometimes I get flash backs, but it never stays. That's ok though. I will learn to live with it until such a time that God decides that I have had enough flash backs. :) Glad you liked my idea.

**Luna Prime- Awesomeness: **Thanks!

**Mercedes Wolfcry: **Dunca!(German for 'thank-you')

**Sailor Shinzo: **Yes, I will, but that will be next chapter. This chapter is partially to break up the episode chapters and partially to work on part of the story. The amnesia I could deal with if it weren't for the flashbacks that accompany it. Darn flashbacks are annoying… :(

**Transformers' BABY: **Thank ya!

**Queen Lilliandil: **Yes I've noticed that pattern as well. Bumblebee had Megatron control him, Bulkhead had information take over him, between those Amelia had her head taken over by a glitch(and memory loss) and then next chapter is the spoiler you are talking about. Not to mention the _other_ spoiler. What is it with this series and stuff being wrong with the processor? Lol. It appears to be the latest trend. I feel like there should be a commercial advertising processor problems. Lol.

Anyway, here is this chapter! :)

**Chapter 17: A Cause for Alarm**

**~Unknown Location, Normal PoV~**

Water dripped ominously in the crashed Decepticon ship. Very few living beings resided in the ship, most of the beings offlining long ago. Though dark, there was a glow emanating from the equipment that still operated, being kept up by the Cons that still resided. The glow revealed the bodies of fallen Cons and Bots alike, from the battle that had ultimately crashed the ship.

A one-opticed Con was reviewing some data on one of the computer terminals when a Vehicon came in and walked up behind the one-opticed Con.

"Commander Shockwave," the Vehicon said. "The prisoners have been confined to the labs as you designated."

"Good," Shockwave said and moved away as another Vehicon came in and joined the other in watching their commander head toward where one of the two prisoners were being kept.

"Is it just me or does the commander creep you out, too?" one Vehicon asked the other.

"I'm just glad I'm not in one of those labs," the other Vehicon said, both shivering.

**~A Swamp in Africa, Amelia's PoV~**

I sighed, moving another vine out of the way as I followed behind Ratchet. We were the only ones available for this mission, as everybot else had already been away. Raf was in charge of the ground bridge, being the only being on base at the moment.

"What, exactly, are we looking for in this place?" I asked, picking a piece of swamp gunk off my shoulder.

"There have been reports of disappearances around here," Ratchet said. "And other reports of a giant robotic being. Agent Fowler believes their related. I'm also getting faint Energon readings."

"So, anything that shouldn't be here?" I asked, lifting my foot up after nearly stepping on a slumbering frog and continuing.

"Precisely," Ratchet said.

I nodded briefly to myself and kept an optic out for anything that was out of sorts. Everything looked as if it belonged in a swamp. We walked in silence as we searched, Ratchet looking with both his optics and a scanner. I wasn't too thrilled about this. From the sounds of it this could get dangerous, and neither of us were warriors. My spark cringed at the thought that Ratchet may get hurt on this mission and I cringed at the fact that we wouldn't likely be able to call for back-up. I stayed close to Ratchet, feeling a need to stay close both for my safety and because of an odd protective sense I had about him. I would fight anything that attacked us, because I had to protect Ratchet. Well, that's what my spark said anyway.

I mentally sighed at myself, wanting to shake my head at myself. My spark told me that Ratchet was important to me, but so were the others. So why I got so protective over Ratchet more than the others was beyond my comprehension. There was something different about my feelings for Ratchet, I could tell that much. I just couldn't figure out how or why. I couldn't ask Ratchet about it, that'd just be weird. Maybe I'd ask Ironhide, he'd tell me. He never had a problem with answering my questions before.

Distracted by both my confused thoughts and my search, I didn't see the vine near my foot until I tripped on it. I fell flat on my face in the murky and muddy swamp water. I lifted my head, to see Ratchet backtracking to me as I lifted myself off the ground.

"Ick," I said, wiping mud off my face.

"You alright?" Ratchet asked, offering a hand to help me up.

"Yeah," I said, ignoring the feeling in my spark as I allowed him to help me up. This was no time to dwell on confusing feelings. "Watch out for stray vines."

It was very brief, but I could've sworn I saw the ghost of a smile on Ratchet's face before I was distracted by a smell.

"Hold on, I smell something," I said, feeling a growing sense of apprehension.

"What is it?" Ratchet asked, knowing that my sense of smell was better than most Bots.

"Smells like Energon…but…something seems different about it," I said, looking in the direction the smell was coming from in confusion. "Like…it's been tampered with somehow."

"Tampered with?" Ratchet asked. "That's not possible."

"Isn't it?" I asked, with barely a glance at Ratchet. I had a sinking feeling about what may be the source of the smell. "Did we not acquire partial knowledge of a synthetic Energon last week? If there can be a synthetic Energon, who says the natural stuff can't be tampered with?"

"But who, on Earth, would have the…" Ratchet began, but then seemed to freeze a second as he came to a conclusion. "I'm comming Raf. You are going back to base and I will handle this from here."

"No," I said, not turning to look at Ratchet. I shook my head. "No, Ratchet. I won't go and leave you on your own on this mission."

"Amelia," Ratchet said, his tone harsh. "I will not risk your safety with this. The only Con I know of that would tamper with Energon is…"

"I don't care, Ratchet," I said, cutting him off. "The fact that this is getting dangerous is reason enough for me to stay. Safety smafety. I will not let you handle this on your own and that's that. I can hold my own in a fight."

I started following the smell, well aware that Ratchet was irritated at my stubbornness as he followed. He didn't try to convince me to go back to base, however. I couldn't say I blamed him for not wanting me involved, I wasn't exactly a fighter yet. But, then, neither was he. He was a medic and I might as well be a youngling for all the battle experience I had. We were definitely not the ideal Bots for this mission, but we were all there was available. But we could succeed, I knew. If only we thought positively about it.

Somehow, that thought only made my apprehension grow even more. I could feel the tenseness filling my body and the stiffness in my door wings my apprehension caused.

I crouched, hiding behind shrubbery as we came close to a patch of solid ground. Solid ground that contained a crashed ship. I had a sinking feeling about it and instincts told me to flee, but I ignored them. I shivered as I looked at the place, picking out three guards at the front entrance and four more toward the rear.

"I'd really prefer you not be here," Ratchet said, crouching next to me, his hand on my shoulder.

I gave him a look that said 'your point is?' before turning back to the ship. "Yeah, well, you're stuck with me," I said. A quiet growl escaped me. "I do wish one of the others were here though."

"They're held up with their own problems," Ratchet said, removing his hand from my shoulder. "We know they're here, we should wait until we have back up."

I shivered and crouched lower. "Do we have time to wait? What if they got someone in there?" I asked.

Ratchet grumbled. "How good are you at stealth?" he asked, eying the 'Con ship.

"I've improved greatly since…well, when I glitched," I said. "Jazz has taught me a lot."

"Alright, there's an entrance to the air ducts at the rear of the ship," Ratchet said, pointing out the location of said entrance. "It'll put a strain on your door wings, but we already know you are able to fit in them. Find out if they have anyone in there and then meet me back here."

I nodded. "Okay," I said and started moving, but Ratchet caught my arm and bought me back.

"Under no circumstances put yourself into harm's way, you understand me?" Ratchet said.

I was about to say something, but stopped when I saw the look in his optics. He was worried, I could tell. And I didn't blame him, because I was worried too. It wasn't like I did this sort of thing all the time.

"I will be careful," I promised.

"Good," Ratchet said and released my arm.

I nodded to him, my expression serious and hiding the emotions I felt. I then turned away and stealthily ran toward the rear of the ship. I stayed hidden behind the shrubbery and peered over it when I made it toward the rear. I could see there were more guards than I had initially seen. This would be difficult. I scanned the side of the ship and found an air duct above where the engines were, or had been. A good portion of the rear of the ship was either gone or under the ground. It was clear that the engine on this side had fallen off, though, and just above the sparking wires was an entrance to the air ducts, the cover dented and barely hanging onto the hull.

"Now I just gotta get there without being seen," I mumbled, door wings moving slightly.

I peered back in the direction I had come from, where Ratchet was waiting for me to return. It wasn't too late to back out if I wanted to. But then, I didn't really want to. Not to say the thought didn't cross my mind, I didn't feel really prepared for this and I wasn't sure how long I could go without getting caught. But I had this nagging feeling that there was someone in there that needed help. I had to at least scope it out so that we could get back-up and return to help them. But the question was, how to get past the guards outside?

Before I could think on it any further, the 'Cons started moving, toward the other side of the ship. Curious, I peered to where Ratchet was again, debating whether I should try to see if he was still there. Though I was worried about him now, I knew if I did so I wouldn't get the chance to get by unnoticed again.

Sighing, I prayed that Ratchet was safe before dashing across the open area, to the ship. When I reached the ship, I pressed myself against the side and peered around. It didn't appear as if I was spotted. Taking a deep breath and bracing myself for anything, I turned and began climbing the side of the ship. When I reached the air vent, I carefully removed the cover and set it down, making sure it wouldn't fall off and give me away. Releasing my breath I was holding while watching the cover to be sure it wouldn't fall, I pressed my door wings tightly against my back, flinching slightly as I felt the strain on the hinges. Breathing deeply to calm my nerves, I crawled into the vent, trying to ignore how little space I had. There was no way I'd be able to turn around without exiting the air ducts. Hopefully I wouldn't run into any problems.

I crawled through the ducts, not really sure where I was going, but keeping track of what way I went and what I passed along the way. I wasn't really sure what I was looking for, so I just kept track of what was where and where I was in the ship. When I was where I estimated was the other side of the ship I found what appeared to be the brig. The scent of Energon was strong and I could easily see why. There was Energon on the ground, as if a prisoner was put in with wounds. It smelled semi-fresh as well, which meant there was someone in it recently. I had to wonder where whoever was in there previously was now.

Dread growing, along with the slight pain in the hinges to my door wings, I continued on, turning down a duct that would take me toward the front of the ship. As I searched around, I made a mental map of the place, hoping I wouldn't get lost. I found several labs, with fallen mechs, Decepticon and Autobot alike, obviously having had been experimented on. I also saw other things, creatures that I couldn't figure out if they were organic, metallic or some mix between the two. I shivered. Whatever this Con was up to, I wasn't sure I wanted to find out. Eventually, I caught sight of a couple vehicons in the halls, dragging along a red mech, followed by a couple dragging along a yellow mech. In front of them was a mech with one red optic and emanating a sense of creepiness. He reeked of Energon, including that tampered smell.

"Commander Shockwave, sir," one of the vehicons said. "What are we gonna do about the new prisoner?"

"Keep him in the brig with these two for now," Shockwave said. "Where there's one Autobot, there're more. I want everyone searching the ship and surrounding area."

"Yes sir!" the vehicons saluted.

It was minute, but I could've sworn I saw the finger of the red mech twitch even as the yellow mech's head lifted slightly. I could see the dull blue glow of the yellow's optics.

I had a good idea of where they were being taken, so I back tracked, being careful to tread lightly. It wasn't too hard to find an intersection with some ducts crossing the one I was in and I used the intersection to turn around. I took a while to return to what I knew was the brig section and I figured the guards had long before dropped the two mechs in the brig. When I found the brig section, I searched for the correct cell that contained the Autobots. While an Autobot officially, I still viewed them as my family. I had to get them out, though I knew I couldn't on my own. I'd find them and then call for back-up.

I found the cell rather quickly, and peered inside through the vent in the ceiling. Both mechs I had seen in the hall were there, the red one looking in much worse shape than the yellow, who was talking in whispers to Ratchet, who had apparently gotten himself caught. Ratchet's leg looked damaged and he had a wound on his side that the yellow mech was tending to as they whispered. I was about to let them know help was on the way, but I caught the scent I had smelled off of Shockwave coming this way. It would do them no good if I got captured as well.

Grumbling in my head, but not out loud, I continued through the air ducts and found my way to where I had entered from. After I made it there, I peered outside. There were Cons everywhere, I'd have to come up with a way to clear the immediate area. Catching sight of the cover, I got an idea. Carefully, I eased out of the and crouched precariously above the air duct entrance. I picked up the cover and looked around for a spot where no Cons would see where it came from. Finding a sufficient spot, I tossed the cover, hearing it clang loudly on the nose of the ship. I grinned when the Cons all started running toward the front of the ship.

"Idiots," I whispered.

I climbed quickly down and crouched, pressed against the side of the ship as I made sure my path was clear. I dashed across to the surrounding swamp and found a good place to hide before calling base.

"**Amelia to base,"** I said in my communicator. **"Anybody there?"**

"**This is Optimus, I hear you Amelia," **Optimus's voice came through and I could feel the relief course through me.

"**Optimus! Thank Primus! We got a situation," **I told him.

"**What is wrong, my friend?" **Optimus asked and I filled him in on what happened while he had been off base with Ironhide and Jazz. **"Stay where you are, we will be there shortly."**

"**Yes sir," **I said and clicked off the communication.

I sighed, my door wings twitching a little in my anxiety. I hated waiting, especially when a friend was in danger. I only hoped that Shockwave wouldn't harm Ratchet before we could get him out.

**~In the Cell, Normal PoV~**

"_Some rescue party," _the yellow bot said in Cybertronian is a low whisper as he worked to do a field patch on Ratchet's side.

Ratchet growled warningly. _"Can it, Sunstreaker," _he said. _"We weren't aware this," _he waved an arm at their surroundings, including a barely conscious Sideswipe, _"is what we would find. We were merely investigating suspicious reports. Besides, if Amelia has any sense, she'll be calling for back-up as we speak."_ His voice had lost its edge as he spoke of the femme, a fact that Sunstreaker quickly picked up on.

"_Amelia? That's an unusual name," _ Sunstreaker said, finishing the patch.

"_She is rather…unusual herself," _Ratchet said as Sunstreaker watched as his optics filled with something he had never before seen in the mech. He had a suspicion about this femme and the doc bot.

"_How so?" _ he asked, curious.

"_She…was born human, for one," _ Ratchet said.

Sunstreaker stalled and if the small tool wasn't attached to his finger then he would've dropped it. _"What? And she's not now?"_ he asked, sure his suspicion was just proven wrong. Ratchet merely nodded. _"What is she now, if she's not what she was born as?"_

"_Cybertronian."_

The single word brought back his suspicions. There was a mysterious femme around who was not one of their species and now was? And from the look in Ratchet's optics, as much as the mech tried to hide it, he suspected the doc bot thought more of this femme than he would dare to admit. He couldn't believe it. Species change? Ratchet in love? Even if the doc bot didn't realize it. The sheer impossibility of both almost sent his processor into a crash. Though, that could also be the damage inflicted on him by the Cons.

"_Don't think so much, you look ready to glitch," _Ratchet said, his medical programming kicking in upon seeing the frozen look on the yellow mech's faceplates and hearing a faint clicking sound. Clear signs of being close to glitching. Not the same kind as the one Amelia went through, thankfully.

Sunstreaker shook his head. _"Right," _he said. _"So, how long do you think it will take back-up to get here?"_

"_It should be anytime now," _ Ratchet said.

Well, Ratchet hoped it would be soon anyway, as he watched Shockwave walk by, clearly heading outside. He could only hope that the twisted mech didn't find Amelia before she could call for back-up. He hadn't created a distraction for her just so she could get captured. Of course, getting captured himself hadn't been the idea either. Better him than her though. He couldn't bear the thought that she could be locked in this cell as well. He knew if she got far enough away, she'd call for back-up and he refused to believe she wouldn't.

**~Outside, Amelia's PoV~**

I hid behind a tree, peering around it. Ironhide was behind the tree next to me. We were waiting for the others to create a distraction so we could get into the ship to rescue Ratchet and the other two bots. I was anxious, wishing they would hurry up. Ever since I had realized Ratchet had gotten himself captured, most likely when he had created a distraction so I could safely do recon, every minute had felt like two hours. I hated the fact there were bots being held by this Shockwave and I hated even more that Ratchet was one of them.

"There's our chance, let's go!" Ironhide said as the vehicons all went after something toward the rear of the ship.

There being no entrance beside the air ducts back there, we had to go through the main entrance. The cons being preoccupied with the others, we ran into little opposition. The opposition we did run into, Ironhide easily took out with his cannons or we punched simultaneously in the face, knocking them out. I could smell traces of Shockwave's scent, but it was clear to me he was outside, observing the fight. He wasn't moving, which meant he either didn't realize we were in his ship or believed we didn't stand a chance.

"What way?" Ironhide asked when we stopped at an intersection.

I took a moment to consult my mental map and then pointed as I moved to the right path. "This way," I said simply.

We raced down the halls, eventually coming to the brig section. When we found the right cell, Ironhide blasted the control and the door slid open, getting stuck half-way. I kicked it the rest of the way before we walked in. I put my hands on my hips and looked, accusingly at Ratchet.

"And here you told me to stay out of trouble," I said.

"Save it," Ratchet very nearly growled, but not quite.

Rolling my optics as Ironhide helped the yellow bot support the red bot, I walked over to Ratchet and helped him up, supporting him on the side of his injured leg. He grunted in pain and I adjusted my grip around him so I could support him better as we headed out of there.

An hour later, we were all safely back at base, the red mech in recharge or something as Ratchet worked on his repairs in med bay. The yellow bot needed medical attention as well, but he wasn't as severe or life threatened, so he was waiting for the other to be done. He was still in the med bay though, as was I. I was there partially to make sure Ratchet didn't put too much strain on his leg Optimus and Ironhide had put in a sort of brace for him, which was kinda like putting it in a cast. I was also there because Ratchet insisted on making sure I was in top condition.

"I still say you're paranoid when it comes to me," I said, arms crossed as I sat cross-legged on the berth next to the yellow mech, facing Ratchet's back.

"Shut up and let me work," Ratchet said.

I sighed and turned to the yellow mech. "So who are you guys anyway?" I asked, curiously.

"Sunstreaker," the yellow mech said. "And he's Sideswipe, my twin."

My optics widened and I felt the grin that spread across my face. "As in the twins who drive Ratchet crazy?" I asked and Sunstreaker smirked.

"You've heard of us," he said.

"Only in that Ratchet once told me that every time he hears the word 'fun', he expects to see you or your brother in the med bay," I admitted.

"Hey! Who said you could talk about me behind my back?" Ratchet said, waving his wrench threateningly above his head.

"It's not considered behind your back when you can hear me," I noted. "Besides, you know that's what you said. I haven't lost all my memories from being human."

Ratchet sighed and continued to work on Sideswipe in silence. I frowned, my door wings twitching slightly.

"Aw, he'll be ok," Sunstreaker said, as if reading my mind. A mischievous look crossed his face as he grinned, leaning toward me slightly. "So, tell me more about yourself."

"Why not? Better than doing nothing," I said. "What do you want to know?"

As I talked with Sunstreaker, I was completely unaware of the fact that Ratchet tensed and was holding back a warning growl meant for Sunstreaker. Yup, I was blissfully unaware of how our simple conversation made Ratchet feel protective and perhaps a little jealous. Had I been able to read the yellow bot's mind, I would've discovered that the purpose behind his flirting, though I hardly realized he was flirting due to my obliviousness, was to make Ratchet feel jealous.

But I was unaware of all that stuff as we spoke about random things. I just knew that I wasn't bored out of my skull while waiting for Ratchet to finish with Sideswipe.


	18. Stronger and Faster is Not Always Better

**A/N: **Haha! Another update! But first! I must share something! It's really cool! At least, to us Transfans it is. *grin*

So you know how occasionally we'll see vehicles that remind us of the Bots? Well over the past week I have seen exact replicas of some! Skidz, Mudflap, Sideswipe, Ironhide and Jolt, their movie-verse versions, I have seen over the past week their exact replicas. I couldn't see if any of them had the insignia, but they all looked exactly like them! I also saw an ambulance that reminded me of Ratchet while walking home yesterday, but it was red, therefore the wrong color, but I saw it and thought immediately of Ratchet, which is unusual, cause I have long ago accepted that I will never see Ratchet around here as all the ambulances are the wrong color. Cool, and funny, huh? :)

**Author's Replies:**

**Luna Prime- Awesomeness: **Hehe, thanks! Yes, I am still recovering well. I think I've about moved past the flash back stage, though the partial amnesia stays. I actually cracked a joke about it all the other night, so I am slowly getting there.

**Mercedes Wolfcry: **Lol. It is cute, isn't it? :) Lol, I don't think she's quite a ninja yet. ;P Glad you enjoyed it so much. The twins are awesome, aren't they? I still like Ratch' better though. :)

**Sailor Shinzo: ** Yup! Well, wait no more! *grin*

**Transformers' BABY: **Glad you enjoyed it.

**Princess Thil Galel: **Lol. I know, right? It's always funny to see that.

**Vivian Hale: **"The Boys Are Back"? That made me think of Alvin & the Chipmunks when they say "We're back!~" in the previews for their second movie. :) Thanks for the prayers.

**Jmqe: **I am glad you have liked it. I may do that for the twins, but I'm not sure how I'll do it or when or if it will be in this story. I may write another story for that, I dunno yet. We'll see how this goes first, 'Kay?

**Queen Lilliandil: **Shockwave is indeed one creepy dude, I agree. Lol. I agree on the twins as well. Next chapter we will probably see some of their shenanigans. Glad you have liked it so far. :)

**Cranes Girl: **Glad you like it so much. And here's the next update! And thanks, I am feeling much better.

As a note, if you haven't seen the episode "Stronger, Faster" there are spoilers for it in this chapter.

Anyway, on with the story!

**Chapter 18: Stronger and Faster is Not Always Better**

**~Autobot Base, Normal PoV~**

"So, Amelia," Sideswipe said, popping out of nowhere and slinging an arm over Amelia's shoulders. "What do you do for fun around here?"

Amelia's door wings twitched slightly, showing her discomfort with the sudden move from the red mech. Across the room were Ratchet and Ironhide, who both noticed the femme's discomfort. Unconsciously, Ratchet let out a low growl and as Ironhide looked between him and the two across the room, he realized that he needed to do something.

"Ratchet," Ironhide said. "You and I need to talk."

"But-"

"No buts," Ironhide cut his protests off and dragged the medic off to the med bay, the one place on base they were guaranteed solitude.

"Ironhide, what is this about?" Ratchet demanded.

"This is about you," Ironhide said. "And Amelia."

Ratchet's optics flashed and he felt his spark pulse in his chest. "What?" he asked, his processor not quite grasping what he meant, even if his spark understood.

"Oh come on, Ratch!" Ironhide said. "Are you _that_ dense?"

"What the frag are you talking about?" Ratchet said, his anger flaring at the fact that Ironhide clearly knew something he didn't about the femme.

"You love her," Ironhide accused, as if it should be the most obvious thing in the world.

"I-what-how-but-" Ratchet stuttered as a warm feeling flitted through his spark. "Don't be ridiculous Ironhide. We're in a war, there is no time for love." He said once he regained his composure.

"No, you don't be ridiculous," Ironhide said, not backing down. "War or not, you are in love. We all see it, Ratchet. Even the twins."

Ratchet growled. "Don't mention the twins right now," he growled.

"Point," Ironhide said. "The twins have been spending a ridiculous amount of time with Amelia and you are jealous. It's obvious. You are overly protective of Amelia, you make more sure that she is alright than you do the rest of us, even when she is perfectly fine, and we've all seen the way you look at her."

Ratchet started. He went to yell at the mech in front of him, but he stopped. He had caught himself staring at her from afar a couple of times. He hadn't realized he had been caught. Talk about dirty secrets. And he couldn't deny that he worried over her more than even he had thought possible. And then there was the odd feeling he got in his spark whenever he thought about her and was around her. Could Ironhide be telling the truth?

"Ironhide," Ratchet said, now unsure of himself. "You have a sparkmate in Chromia, do you not?"

"Yes," Ironhide said. "What about it?"

"How did you know she was the one?" Ratchet asked.

Ironhide grinned. Progress. "Well, let's just say it's a matter of the spark," he said.

Ratchet growled at the vague answer as the mech turned to leave. Before exiting, Ironhide turned back around slightly.

"You know, you shouldn't wait too long," he said. "Because, if you don't claim her, at this rate one of the twins will."

And with that, Ironhide left, just missing being hit in the helm by an airborne wrench. When he was gone, Ratchet growled and turned to work on the formula for synthetic Energon. His spark flared in a protective and possessive manner. The twins better hope they didn't make advances on his femme. He paused, realizing he had just thought of Amelia as his femme. _His._ His spark told him that she was _his_.

Did that mean Ironhide was right? A matter of the spark…that would mean his spark would know. The same spark that just declared the femme to be his, as if he possessed her. No, not possessed, that wasn't the right word. In fact, that was a little bit disturbing to his processor. He didn't want to control her, he just wanted to protect her and keep her near. His spark longed to be near her and to keep any mech who made advances on her away from her. He found, surprisingly, that his spark said that he _needed_ her.

Ratchet sighed. _Alright,_ he thought as he went over his work. Just a couple tweaks left to go. _So I love her…Now what?_

He had no idea what to do now that he realized this. He had no idea how Amelia felt about him. As far as he knew, she viewed him as she did the others. Like family. How was he supposed to win her spark when he knew nothing about love?

**~Amelia's PoV~**

"Sooo, this is a Cybertronian game?" I asked, watching as the twins and Bulkhead tossed a large ball of scrap metal between each other.

"It's called lobbing," Arcee explained from next to me. "It was a well-known sport back on Cybertron."

"Can I try?" I asked suddenly as I followed the ball with my optics as it flew through the air toward Sideswipe.

"Sure, catch," Sideswipe said before tossing the ball my way.

I caught it, but he had thrown it with such force that it pushed me back along the floor. I felt the back of my right foot hit something and I toppled over, landing on a device and completely destroying it. The brightside was that it wouldn't harm anything else by it being destroyed. The down side was that, not only was it the thing that allowed inter-dimensional travel, but Ratchet was going to be upset.

"Uh, oops?" I said, door wings tilting downward.

"Don't worry about it, Ratchet can fix it," Sideswipe said, helping me up.

"Yeah, and we all know he can't stay mad at you," Arcee said, clearly trying to cheer me up.

"Maybe I'll just….go do something else," I said, passing the ball back to Sideswipe.

I quickly retreated to my quarters where I sat down with a datapad to read. Optimus had lent me some that he had brought with him from Cybertron and I found them quite interesting. I wondered briefly where I would've been had I been born on Cybertronian instead of on Earth in an alternate dimension. Not that it mattered, but I was just a little bit curious as to how my life would've been different.

**~Normal PoV~**

"Nice going, Sideswipe," Sunstreaker growled, punching his brother in the arm.

"Ow! What'd I do?" Sideswipe asked.

"You threw it too hard, that's what," Sunstreaker said.

"Come on guys, don't fight," Bulkhead said. "Just give her some time and she'll feel better."

"Yeah, she's probably reading one of those datapads Optimus lent her and when she returns she'll have forgot all about it," Arcee said.

"Does she get upset often?" Sideswipe asked, curious as to why they were talking as if it were normal.

"No, but we understand her enough," Bulkhead said. "She forgets about anything when she reads. She met Fowler last week and she was late to the meeting because she was reading and forgot."

Sideswipe laughed. "So we got a bookworm on our hands, huh?" he said.

"Appears so," Arcee said. She headed off in the direction Amelia had disappeared to. "I'm going to go check on her though."

Arcee walked down the hall and toward Amelia's quarters. She was worried about the femme, she kind of reminded her of her old charge, Flare-up. She and her sisters had taken care of the small femme when she was a sparkling and through her youngling years. She didn't know where any of them were these days though, but she knew they were alive. Flare-up had developed a crush on one of the mechs that were her age and she had been terrified of doing anything that might upset her crush.

As with her old charge, Amelia also seemed to have the characteristic of not wanting to upset those she cared about. The purple and white femme didn't like it when anyone was unhappy. She also didn't like when any of them were hurt, physically or emotionally. She got just as upset at the bully that plagued the children as she did the 'Cons whenever one of them would return with an injury. Arcee knew she felt useless in the fight against the 'Cons and she tried to make up for it by being supportive. If any of them were upset, she would hug 'em, whether they wanted a hug or not.

Arcee chuckled, remembering the first time she hugged Sunstreaker after the twins had recovered from their time in Shockwave's captivity. She had chased the bot around declaring that she would hug him and make him smile if it was the last thing she did. She and Sideswipe had laughed their heads off at the scene and Sunstreaker eventually realized it was pointless to resist. There was just something about Amelia's hugs that everyone liked. Maybe it was simply because her intentions were pure and her infinite desire to help, not harm.

"Amelia?" Arcee called through the door to the femme's quarters. "It's Arcee, can I come in?"

"Sure," Amelia's voice called from inside and the door slid open.

Arcee walked in and the door slid shut behind her. As they had suspected, she was sprawled on her berth reading a datapad, her door wings moving slightly as she read. Arcee couldn't help but smile at the way her feet kicked in the air. She couldn't resist, though, as she walked over, to firmly grab the datapad and take it from the femme's hands.

"Hey! I was reading that!" Amelia said in protest.

"What's it about?" Arcee asked, holding the datapad out of the femme's reach.

"The Legend of the Thirteen," Amelia said, a grin crossing her features. "It's very interesting, though The Fallen is really creepy."

Arcee chuckled at the face Amelia made at that point. "I have to agree with you there," she said. "But enough reading, let's talk."

"About what?" Amelia asked, a suspicious look crossing her face.

"Well, we never really ask you how you feel about all this," Arcee said, taking a seat on the berth next to the small femme as she sat the datapad to the side. "You always seemed happy enough, but we never really asked you. So, how _do_ you like it here?"

"I like it," Amelia said, rolling over onto her back and resting her hands across her chest as she looked up at the blue femme. "It's like living with a crazy, sometimes dysfunctional, fun, loving, caring family." She spread her hands occasionally as she spoke.

"Family, huh? I feel the same way," Arcee grinned. She still remembered that first day she met Jack when they were running from Vehicons and she had said that Bumblebee was family. "So, what am I to you?"

Amelia's face contorted with thought before she grinned largely. "A sister," she said. "Bumblebee and Optimus are like brothers to me. I have this big sister complex when it comes to Bee and Optimus is like a much older brother who I can always go to for help. 'Hide's like a father-figure to me as he teaches me a lot and stuff. The twins are like obnoxious cousins and Jazz is like…well Jazz is that eccentric member of the family you're not quite sure how you're related to them, but you know you are somehow."

Arcee laughed. "Just wait till he hears that," she grinned. "He'll go crazy."

Amelia laughed as well. "Probably," she agreed.

And now was the question she knew she had to ask. Everyone except for Ratchet knew the answer, but she needed to get a verbal admittance. If only so they knew that Amelia understood her own feelings.

"So, what about Ratchet?" Arcee asked when they finally stopped laughing about Jazz's eccentricities.

"Um," Amelia's smile faded and she looked more than a little confused. "I'm not sure, really. The feeling is…different for Ratchet. I can't really place it for anything."

Arcee shook her head, sighing. "How can these two be the only ones who don't see it," she mumbled, thinking her companion couldn't hear her.

"Who doesn't see what?" Amelia asked, surprising Arcee. She thought she had said it too quietly. Obviously not.

"You say you feel differently about Ratchet," Arcee said. "Why do you think that is?"

Amelia shifted to where she sat cross-legged on the berth, facing Arcee, who turned and sat the same way. Had she still been human, her face would've scrunched up in her thought.

"I dunno, I somehow feel…closer? To him? Like…um…" Amelia struggled to put her feelings into words. "Sometimes I get sad when he isn't around, even when I should be happy."

"And?" Arcee asked.

"Well," Amelia said. "When we were on the mission that led to us finding the twins, he told me to come back to base cause he thought it was gonna get really dangerous and I didn't because I was scared if I left him he'd get hurt. So I guess, a little overprotective."

Arcee nodded. They were on the right track. "Ok, now, what does your spark tell you about him?" she asked. After all, this was a matter of the spark, as Chromia had always told whenever she inquired about her and Ironhide. Overprotective could apply to all of the bots when it came to Amelia.

"I don't know," Amelia whined, her face falling into her hands. "I don't know how to interpret my spark. How am I supposed to know that?"

That was a very good question. Arcee had never experienced it before, so she could not say. Oh how she wished Chromia was with them. If only she had shown up with Ironhide and Jazz.

"I don't know either, Amelia," Arcee admitted. "My sister knows more about that sort of thing than I do. Ironhide may be able to tell you."

Amelia groaned. "That's too awkward!" she said. "How would I even begin that conversation?"

Arcee sighed. "Well, then I guess we are at a dead end, then," she said. After all, she couldn't just flat out and tell the femme she was in love with Ratchet. Not if she didn't understand how her spark communicated with her. Usually it was a conversation held between a femme and their femme creator.

**~Amelia's PoV~**

I felt bad because for the first time in a few weeks Arcee and I were having a good femme-to-femme talk and I was at a loss at how to continue it. As she said, we had hit a dead end.

"Hey, let's go see if the others are still lobbing scrap around," Arcee suggested in a clear change of subject.

My door wings drooped. "I broke something," I said. "Ratchet's gonna be mad at me."

"Nah, trust me, Ratchet never stays mad at you," she said. "Besides, the twins have probably gotten it to blow over by now."

"Ok…" I said.

I picked the datapad I had been reading off the berth as I stood to the floor. I took the pad over to my desk and put it in the middle, so I would know it was the one I was currently reading. I had a stack of other datapads Optimus had lent me to the side that were waiting to be read and a couple on the other side that I had already read.

We walked back out to the main area where we found the twins tinkering with the remains of the device I had fallen on. I raised my optic ridge at them and Ironhide laughed at my expression as he walked up.

"Don't worry, they won't blow nothin' up," Ironhide said. "They know if they do, they'll be slagged. Unfortunately it's un-repairable so they're using the parts for something."

"Oh, thanks, that's so comforting," I said sarcastically, though a grin crossed my features. "The obnoxious cousins have a new toy."

"Obnoxious cousins?" Ironhide asked as Arcee laughed.

"Sorry that's my fault," Arcee said. "I asked her what she thought of everyone. Turns out we're all a big, dysfunctional yet good family."

"Really? So wat am Ah then?" Jazz asked, popping up out of seemingly nowhere.

I looked at the silver bot guiltily. "The eccentric member I don't know where to place," I admitted.

"Ya don' know where ta place meh?" Jazz asked incredulously as Ironhide laughed. "How can ya not know where ta place meh?"

"I'll figure it out, don't worry," I said, trying to calm the poor mech down.

"Hey Amelia!" Raf's sudden voice brought my attention away from the group of bots. "Want to go see what Ratchet's up to?"

I shrugged. "Sure, why not?" I said.

I walked over and allowed Raf to climb into my hand. He held onto my thumb as I walked down the halls. When we reached the med bay, I paused a moment, thinking about the conversation I had had with Arcee. What was she getting at? Shaking my head, I pressed the button to open the door and walked in. Ratchet appeared to be knee deep in tests of some kind.

"Hey Ratchet," Raf said happily, unaware of my hesitation.

"Hello Rafael," Ratchet said without looking. He looked up and then looked surprise to see that I was there as well. "A-Amelia."

"Oh come on, Ratch'," I said, grinning as I walked over and let Raf get off my hand and onto the counter. "Are you that surprised to see me?"

"I-I, um," he stuttered and I raised an optic ridge at him. Raf was looking between him and me as if trying to figure out what was going on.

"Dude, relax," I said. "I'm just curious to see if the synthetic Energon formula was coming along. I find it quite interesting."

Ratchet seemed to regain his composure when I brought the topic to some form of existence. I found it rather odd and confusing that suddenly he was stuttering when he had never done so before. Ratchet never struck me as the type to stutter.

"I was about to run some tests," Ratchet said. "Would you both like to watch? I see you come with your own set of protective eye wear." He looked at Raf.

"I can watch?" Raf asked excitedly.

"Of course we want to watch," I said, door wings twitching in my barely concealed excitement.

Ratchet seemed to pause a moment as he took a deep breath and released it. He then selected a container from the collection of the synthetic Energon and inserted it into a device that would allow him to inject it into the test engine he had on the table. He inserted the device and injected the engine with the synthetic Energon. As we watched, the engine powered up and the steady hum of it was encouraging.

"It works!" Raf exclaimed. "I gotta tell Bee!"

"Dup-up-up," Ratchet said, waving a hand in front of him. "This iteration of the formula is still in its testing stages. I will need to run several more tests before we can even think about using it for fuel, ammo or first aid."

There was a beeping sound, indicating that something was going on. We went out to the main area where Ratchet went to the monitor as the other Autobots arrived as well. I went over and let Raf off my hand where Jack and Miko were standing.

"Energon is on the move," Ratchet said.

"The Decepticons," Arcee said.

"Their recent movements indicate that they are scouting for new Energon deposits," Optimus said. "Autobots…"

"Optimus," Ratchet interrupted. "Our Energon reserves are nearly depleted. If one of you comes back injured…" he trailed off.

"I understand," Optimus said. "Arcee, Bulkhead, Bumblebee, you're with me. The rest of you stay on standby. Roll out."

My door wings moved slightly as they went through the ground bridge. I worried about them whenever they went off on a mission and I also wished I could go to help. Ratchet left us to go back to his med bay and we milled around.

"Hey, anyone want to go for a drive?" Sideswipe asked.

"Sweet! I'll go!" Miko cheered.

"Ah think Ah want ta go see more of dis place," Jazz said.

"I can take you for the grand tour if you'd like," Jack offered.

"I'm gonna go on patrol," Ironhide said. He looked at me. "You want to come along?"

"Nah, I think I'll stay here," I said. I had been on patrols since we found the twins.

"I think I'm gonna stay as well," Raf said.

"Suite yourselves," Ironhide shrugged.

And so Raf and I were left alone to our devices.

"I'm gonna go see what Ratchet's doing," I said.

"I'll come too," Raf said and I happily allowed him to climb into my hand again.

When we arrived in the med bay, we were shocked to find Ratchet unconscious.

"Leave him alone for five minutes and _this_ is what happens?" I asked incredulously as I let Raf onto the floor.

"Ratchet!" Raf called, climbing onto the mech. "Ratchet!"

"Ugh," Ratchet said as his optics onlined and he looked up at Raf and me as we stared down at him in worry. "Who knew such a small creature could be so loud." He said as he lifted Raf off his chest.

"Are you ok?" I asked.

"I'm fine," Ratchet said, letting Raf back onto the floor. He stood up. "More than fine, I feel great." He looked at a monitor on his arm. "Energy efficiency is up twelve percent. Motor functions are optimal." He laughed a little before leaving the med bay without so much as another word to us.

Raf and I shared a look before Raf followed after the doc bot. I just stood there in a bit of a daze for a second as I tried to comprehend what had just happened. So we find Ratchet unconscious and he just walks away perfectly fine. Just as I was about to go out to follow the others, I caught sight of a broken container that once had synthetic Energon in it. I smacked my forehead as I realized why he was unconscious. He was using himself as a test subject. I had a bad feeling about this.

"Ratchet," I said as I entered the main area again. Then I paused when Ratchet wasn't there. "Where's Ratchet?"

"He went to help Arcee," Raf said. He then caught my expression. "What's wrong?"

"I'm not one hundred percent sure," I said, sighing. "I could just be paranoid, but I question our friend's sanity."

"Why?" Raf asked.

I held up a container of the synthetic Energon. "I have reason to believe he is testing this on himself," I said.

"The synthetic Energon?" Raf asked. "Isn't that…dangerous?"

"You would think so, huh?" I said.

It was at that moment that we got the call for a ground bridge to bring them back and I sat the container down as Raf manned the controls. The ground bridge opened and I leaned against the wall as the group entered.

"Hey there, little fella," Ratchet said, lifting Raf into his hand and bouncing him slightly before setting him back down.

"What happened?" Raf asked as Ratchet moved on. The mech picked up the container I had brought in and looked at me and I raised an optic ridge at him, letting my expression show my disapproval.

"I only saw the gory aftermath," Bulkhead said. "What's your secret?"

Ratchet turned back to the others. He tossed the container to Arcee, who caught it. "I call it synthEn," he said.

"From the formula Bulk transcribed?" Arcee asked. "I thought it was incomplete." She passed it on to Bee.

"Not anymore," Ratchet said proudly.

"So Ratchet makes a better tough guy than I do a smart guy?" Bulkhead said, taking the container from Bee. Optimus took it next.

"Though I admit, the immediate results are encouraging," Optimus said. "I question the wisdom of using yourself as a test subject."

"Optimus, you didn't see him in action," Arcee said. "He was in overdrive. We should all take this stuff."

"Or give Ratchet some more so we can take a vacation," Bulkhead said.

"I personally agree with Optimus," I said. "If my opinion counts for anything."

"Please, I'm fine," Ratchet said.

"That may be so, but we require a warrior in the lab more than we require someone in the field," Optimus said, handing the container back to Ratchet. "I suggest keeping testing to machines."

"Come on Ratch, I wanna hear about that fight," Bulkhead said, walking by and Ratchet followed him.

I frowned after them before looking at Optimus, who was also frowning. "I question his sanity sometimes," I said.

"I, too, am concerned," Optimus agreed.

"Come on, Amelia," Arcee said. "Let's go talk."

"'Kay," I said, shrugging. I wasn't sure what there was to talk about, but knowing Arcee, she'd think of something.

Bee joined us as well as we walked through the halls. Arcee shared what had happened and though I was impressed, I was still worried. The topic eventually changed to some random topics as we walked. We turned a corner near where the training room was and was met by Bulkhead flying through the wall and landing upside down.

I just stood there and stared.

"You ok, Bulk?" Arcee asked.

"You got competition Bulkhead," Ratchet said, stepping out of the hole in the wall.

"Ratchet?" Arcee asked.

"I'm a bit stronger than I used to be," Ratchet said. "A bit faster too." He punched the air, stopping his fist right in front of Bee's face. "Think you can take me, bug?"

Bee whirled, holding his hands up and waving them as he shook his head.

"Wimp," Ratchet said. He walked by Arcee and I as he left and made a clicking noise. "How's it rolling?"

"Did he just…?" Arcee asked as he disappear down the hall.

"Stronger, faster…studier," Bulkhead said.

My door wings twitched. "I miss the old Ratchet," I said.

"Aw, there's nothing to worry about," Bulkhead said. "He's still the same Ratchet we've always known."

"Right," I said. "I think I need some time alone."

"Are you ok?" Arcee asked, stopping me as I went to turn to go the opposite way than Ratchet had gone.

"I'm ok," I said, though I knew none of them bought it as I walked off.

I eventually decided to go back to the main area and join the others again. When I got there, everyone was there except for the ones that had left earlier and Ratchet.

"Feeling better?" Arcee asked as she and Optimus turned to greet me.

"I'll feel better when I'm not questioning Ratchet's sanity," I said flatly.

"Don't be such a worry wart," Bulkhead said.

I raised an optic ridge at him, showing just what I thought of that suggestion.

"Perhaps a distraction will help," Optimus suggested. "We have detected Decepticon activity. If you feel up to it, you may accompany us."

My door wings perked up. "Sure," I said.

"What about our secret weapon?" Bulkhead asked as Bee activated the ground bridge.

"It is unlikely we will need medical expertise," Optimus said.

"But you never know when you may require additional fire power," Ratchet's voice brought our attention to where he now stood nearby. He walked over. "Amelia can handle bridge duty. She's not ready for a dangerous mission anyway."

"Ratchet," Optimus reprimanded as I held back a growl. "That is not your decision."

Ratchet scoffed. "It's true," he said and before anyone could stop him he transformed and went through the ground bridge.

Optimus looked to me. "I apologize," he said.

"You don't need to apologize," I said, my frustration showing in my voice as I waved a hand. "I'll stay here and do ground bridge duty." I walked back to the computer terminal as the others all shared a look.

**~Normal PoV~**

Optimus knew Amelia was only upset because of the circumstances. She was concerned over Ratchet's behavior and it transferred into frustration when the mech overruled his decision to allow her to come by forcing himself into the mission. He knew he could easily ask Bumblebee to stay instead, but he also realized it would do Amelia no good. She would only get further frustrated with Ratchet when he pounced on Optimus for allowing her to come.

"Autobots, roll out," he said, knowing there was nothing he could do at this point.

They transformed and drove through the ground bridge, coming out on the other end near a bunch of 'Cons around what appeared to be a cave. Ratchet was already watching them from behind a rock shortly down the hill. Optimus led the group down the hill where they hid behind a boulder and took in the situation.

"I guess we should find comfort in that they don't appear to have found what they're looking for," Arcee commented.

"Do you always talk this much on missions?" Ratchet asked irritably.

Bee whirled something and Ratchet shook his head, scoffing. The red and white mech then moved forward, heading straight for the group of Decepticons. Optimus thought briefly about allowing him to learn a lesson by leaving him to handle it alone, that's what Megatron would do. But it's not what Optimus would do and it was not the Autobot way. So he led the others into battle behind Ratchet.

As they fought, they didn't see it when Ratchet chased after a miner who was trying to flee from the battle. After they defeated the Cons, they immediately took notice of the tortured scream coming from the top of the cliff. Noticing the absence of Ratchet among his bots, Optimus had a sinking feeling about what they would find at the top. Even as he scaled the cliff wall, he wished his friend had paid attention to his misgivings about using himself as a test subject.

At the top of the cliff they found Ratchet hovering over a Decepticon miner, who had half his face wielded, obviously by the wielder that was currently in Ratchet's possession. Ratchet transformed it into one of his swords and took a back swing, clearly ready to dispose of the miner. Optimus moved quickly, grabbing his old friend's arm and holding him back, allowing the miner to escape.

"Ratchet! What are you doing?" Optimus demanded.

"Getting results," Ratchet said, angrily pulling his arm away as it transformed back into his hand.

"And breaking protocol," Optimus said.

"Oh and did you just happen to learn the location of Megatron?" Ratchet asked. "And an ample supply of Energon?"

"Autobots do not cause unnecessary harm," Optimus reminded him. "That was a Decepticon miner, _servant_ class."

"Oh and lemme guess, I'm just the medic," Ratchet growled out. "You're too soft Optimus! We should be going straight for Megatron. Hit them where it hurts."

"To do so would only instigate a counter attack and the loss of human life," Optimus said. "I will not endanger the humans with our battle."

"Yet you have no problem endangering ours," Ratchet said. "Just ask Cliffjumper. Oh, that's right, he couldn't be here!"

"That's it!" Arcee growled and tried to attack Ratchet, but Bulkhead held her back.

"I fear the synthetic Energon is clouding your judgment, old friend," Optimus said as he sent a message to Amelia to open the bridge. "I am confining you to base until further notice."

Ratchet went to protest, but seemed to reconsider. He threw his hands out in a frustrated fashion as the ground bridge activated. "Fine, fine," he said, sounding resigned. He walked into the ground bridge.

Arcee, Bulkhead and Bumblebee all shared a look before shrugging and heading to follow. But before they could, Ratchet zoomed back out of the bridge in vehicle mode and took off. Optimus had a pretty good idea of where he was headed and he didn't like it.

**~Autobot Base, Amelia's PoV~**

My door wings twitched in worry as I waited for them to come through the bridge. I wasn't sure why Optimus had called for the bridge so it was nerve wracking that no one was coming through for a bit. Were they simply done? Was someone hurt? Did Ratchet do something stupid? It wasn't too farfetched, as he had been acting differently since he tested the synthEn on himself. It was hard to tell how badly it impaired his judgment.

Finally, Optimus came through with Bee, Bulk and Arcee right behind him. I noted the lack of Ratchet and frowned in worry.

"Where's Ratchet?" I asked.

"He took off," Arcee said, moving to the computer as I turned the bridge off. She pressed different buttons. "That's odd, I can't find his energy signal."

"That synthetic stuff must be masking it," Bulkhead said.

"Keep trying," Optimus said. "We must find Ratchet before he finds Megatron."

"Megatron? As in leader of Decepticons Megatron?" I asked, my door wings folding back and going stiff.

"What other Megatron is there?" Arcee asked as she kept trying to find Ratchet's location.

"We will find him, Amelia," Optimus assured me.

"If he doesn't get himself killed first," I said, optic twitching and one of my door wings quirked sideways.

"Have faith." Optimus said, putting a hand on my shoulder.

I sighed and waited with them as Arcee continued her efforts to find our wayward medic. My spark ached at the thought of losing him. If he got himself killed I would have to find a way to bring him back so I could slag him myself for being so stupid. I could no longer imagine my life with even a single of the Bots missing from it and I especially didn't want Ratchet to be taken from us. It was hard for me to keep control of my emotions as I waited and feared what could be happening to Ratchet as we searched.

It was an hour before his signal finally popped back up and I immediately requested to go with them. I didn't know if it was the rush as Arcee activated the bridge or if Optimus really believed I could handle it, but he didn't give me much argument. Don't get me wrong, I was scared of what could happen to me in going. I mean, Megatron was pretty scary dude from what I understood. However, my concern and worry over Ratchet outweighed any misgivings I had of going.

Bee stayed behind to man the ground bridge as Optimus, Arcee, Bulk and I zoomed through it to go to Ratchet's rescue. On the other side was a mine with 'Cons littering it, but we didn't pause to think of a plan as we took out any that dared to stop us. I pounced on a miner, punched him hard enough to knock him out and then leapt off him, continuing in the direction of Ratchet's signal, knowing the others were right behind me. I was thankful for my lessons with Ironhide and Jazz as I shot a few 'Cons and dodged fire.

I was so focused on getting to Ratchet that I nearly missed the fact that a 'Con had shot at me from my left. I was just able to duck in time to avoid getting hit in the head even as Optimus took the 'Con down with an expert shot from his gun. I knew my optics were wide as I looked at Optimus, who nodded to me to keep moving. I continued on, no longer in the lead as Optimus took up the lead. He shot a couple 'Cons just before we turned a corner.

Ratchet was there, laying on the ground with a puddle of that green synthEn under and around him. He was unconscious and had a gaping wound in the right side of his chest. My spark clenched and I looked up just in time to see the red end of a car speeding away and I immediately knew who it was. I had the option of going after him and slagging him for putting Ratchet in such a state, and I would be lying if I said I didn't want to. I really wanted to slag someone for this. But Ratchet clearly needed help and he came first.

We came to a stop just at Ratchet and Optimus knelt down to examine his condition. We could all see it wasn't good, but we did have to be sure he was alive still. Optimus lifted him as Arcee called Bee for a bridge. We went through and Optimus immediately took Ratchet to the med bay, me trailing behind him in worry and concern. Optimus directed me in helping him to hook up an Energon line to Ratchet over his wound to both stop the leaking and get Energon back into his systems. Once we were sure he was stable, I pulled up a chair and sat next to his berth, to the opposite side of the wound. Optimus patted my shoulder and then left the room for a little while before coming back and sitting on the opposite side of Ratchet.

"Arcee and the others are collecting Energon from the mine," Optimus said. I knew he was trying to distract me enough that I wouldn't go into a depression as I thought about the fact that Ratchet wasn't up yet.

"That's good," I said, not looking up at him as I stared at my hands laying in my lap. "It will help."

I may not have been looking, but I could hear the nod Optimus gave as he responded. "It will," he said.

We continued waiting and eventually day turned to night and I fell into recharge even as I listened to the others making trips to bring in Energon. My arms rested on the berth net to Ratchet's still form and my head rested on my arms.

**~An Hour Later, Normal PoV~**

The first thing Ratchet was aware of when he regained consciousness was that he felt horrible. He could tell he had been given something to reduce pain, but he could still feel the hole in his chest where Megatron had punched through his armor. Primus, he had been acting so stupid. He was aware of something on the berth next to him and he onlined his optics and lifted up slightly, looking to his left to briefly see a sleeping bot before he felt a hand on his right shoulder, pushing him back to a laying position.

"Easy, you've lost a lot of Energon," Optimus said when Ratchet turned his attention to him. "Both bad, and good."

"Optimus," Ratchet said. "I'm sorry, I-I only wanted to-"

"Help, I know," Optimus said. "But you nearly cost us something irreplaceable. Our medic. And a trusted friend."

"I'm sorry," Ratchet repeated. He felt bad for everything now that he was in his right state of mind again.

"Apology accepted, my old friend," Optimus said. "But I am not the only one you should apologize to." He indicated the form sleeping on his other side.

Ratchet followed Optimus' gaze to the form that had fallen into recharge. He could see now that they had white armor and door wings that were detailed with purple flames. Amelia? It had to be. No other bot he knew had a paint job like that one. It was unique, just like her. His spark clenched as he remembered what he had said while under the influence of the synthEn. He knew it had to have hurt her. How would he ever make it up to her? How could he ever show her that he loved her now?

"You had her very worried, Ratchet," Optimus said after he was sure his old friend had realized just who had fallen asleep while waiting for him to wake up. "She expressed to me, she was concerned over your sanity." Ratchet could almost laugh at that. "But you also harmed her in your wanting to help."

"I know," Ratchet said, flinching at the pain in his spark.

"But I believe she will forgive you as well," Optimus said. "She hasn't left your side the whole time you've been unconscious."

Ratchet's spark warmed a little at that thought, but he still felt like he had failed her. If Ironhide hadn't made him realize his feelings for the femme, he wouldn't understand why he felt that way. But as it is, he knew exactly why.

"Life is filled with failures, Ratchet," Optimus said as if he had read his mind. "You know that as well as I do. And you did lead us to a fresh supply of Energon." He brought Ratchet's attention to the large piles and stacks of Energon cubes along the opposite wall of the med bay.

Optimus stood to leave, content now that he knew his medic and friend was going to pull through. "Rest, my friend," he said. "You need it."

Ratchet watched as Optimus walked out of the med bay. He then sighed and looked to the form of Amelia by his side. He flinched a little at the position the femme had taken up. She would probably be stiff when she woke up. He lifted his hand slightly, glad that it was near where her head was resting on her elbow. Gently, he stroked the back of finger on her cheek, wishing that there was some way he could make up for what he had said.

He thought that she was in deep recharge, so when she jolted awake, optics going wide open and staring at him for a moment, he was surprised. He didn't have the energy for him to show it though. He could already feel his processor growing a little more sluggish as he fought recharge, especially now that she was awake.

"R-Ratchet?" she asked, her voice sounding unsure, worried and hopeful all at the same time.

"H-Hey," he said, cursing his weakness.

Slowly a small, half-relieved and half-sad smile crossed her face, but he could tell she was too tired to do much else. He didn't complain when she simply moved her arms enough to where a hand rested on his left arm and drifted back into recharge, as if just touching him gave her some sort of reassurance. He sighed, glad to see that instead of the strained worry that had been on her face before had changed to peaceful relief. He allowed himself to lift his arm slightly and then rest it back down, his hand resting on her arm as well.

He could wait till morning to apologize to her. For now, he was just content to have her there.


	19. Unofficially, Apology, Call

**A/N: **Yay! Update! I can't believe I got this done so fast after getting A World Apart's update! Well, ok, I can believe it, but whatever. I'm sorry it's been so long for you guys to get an update for this chapter. Between school and my other stories, it sometimes can take me awhile to get an update as school sometimes makes it take a good week or so to write one chapter for one story. But I do, in fact, have an update for you for this story right this very moment. :)

As a warning, next chapter I plan to start going through the last four episodes of season 1 of the series. So if you haven't seen One Shall Fall or One Shall Rise parts 1-3, unless you want spoilers you should probably find a way to watch them before reading the next few chapters. I am hoping to get through them within three chapters, but no guarantee. After I get through them, I won't be drawing on the series anymore most likely, because things will take a slightly different turn. I hear season 2 is supposed to have Unicron as the main antagonist, but as far as I am concerned Unicron is destroyed for good and I will believe that until I see what the season actually entails. I don't want Unicron to return! :'(

**Author's Replies:**

**Sailor Shinzo: **You have to know? Or you have known? XD Yes, I do know what you though and I'd have to say you are right. But the question is, when will Amelia realize it? ;P Glad you like it!

**Luna Prime- Awesomeness: **Hehe, yeah they are! *throws fist in the air* Lol. I need to stop drinking energy drinks…they unhealthy. XD Til all are one! *grin*

**Princess Thil Galel: **Fluffy fluff-fluff is good and heartwarming, isn't it? *grins* Lol. Glad you enjoyed it. I always couldn't help but laugh at that line. I just love that episode, though I always want to smack Ratchet.

**Vivian Hale: **That's so cool! I've seen Chromia before, but I only saw her once and unfortunately a guy was riding on her so it kinda ruined it. :'( I am so glad you like this story. It makes me happy that you do. :) Ratchet's kinda scary when he is acting like a druggie, so I agree, yikes! At least he learned his lesson. :) He is indeed a silly medic. Can't help but love him anyway though!

**Queen Lilliandil: **Thanks! Glad you liked it! *grin*

And now I present to you CHAPTER 19! :D

**Chapter 19: Unofficially, Apology and Call**

**~Amelia's PoV~**

"Amelia."

I grumbled and buried my face under my arms, unconsciously tightening my hold on something that my hand was resting on.

"Com'on 'Melia. Ya need ta get up."

I yawned, stretching as I onlined my optics. I looked up to see that Ratchet was laid on the berth I was sleeping with my head on. It took a few moments for me to realize why I was here and when I did, my left door wing twitched as I frowned.

"Come on Amelia," Jazz's voice hit my audios. "Ya need ta give da others room so dey can properly repair da doc bot."

"M'kay," I said, still tired. I let Jazz lead me out of the med bay without much fight.

"Ya feelin' a'right?" Jazz asked once we were in the hall.

"I'm just really tired," I said.

I felt the tingle of a scan and raised an optic ridge at Jazz.

"Yer low on Energon," he explained. "Dat makes sense as it has been a couple months since ya made da change. Usually we need ta re-Energize ourselves every couple months even when we don't get hurt."

"Oh, ok," I said, rubbing my optic with a fist. I yawned. "So.."

"Ah can spare some Energon Ah got in meh room," Jazz said. "Dat way we don' disturb da others an' dey can properly repair Ratch'."

"'Kay…" I said as Jazz led me through the hallways toward his room.

When we reached his room, he sat me down on his couch and disappeared. After a few moments he rematerialized with a cup of Energon in his servo and he thrust it in my direction. I accepted the cup and took a large sip of it before sighing. I could feel the energy spread through my Energon lines and felt grateful that even though Ratchet was currently not able to look out for me that someone else was. I hadn't really spent a whole lot of time with Jazz, but I did view him as part of my new family.

"Thank-you, Jazz," I said before taking another large sip.

"Slow down there," Jazz chuckled, moving my hand with the cup away from my mouth carefully. "Ya don' wanna overload yer systems."

"Right, sorry," I said. "Thank-you. You don't have to be nice to me, you know."

"Are ya crazy?" Jazz asked as he leaned against the side of a chair that sat opposite the couch and grinned at me. "Yer a sweet femme. Why woul' Ah be an'thin' but nice ta ya?"

"Well, I scratched your face for one," I said.

"Don' worry 'bout dat," Jazz said. "Ah told ya Ah don' blame ya for dat. 'Sides, it's all healed up. Ah don' even have a scar."

"Ok, well, how about the fact that I'm not technically an Autobot?" I asked. "And I'm not really much help." I could feel my door wings droop as I took a small sip of my Energon. "So far all I've done is glitch, scratch your face and all around be a burden. I'm as useful as a kitten."

"Kittens are cute," Jazz said, tilting his head. "Ah don' see how bein' a kitten would be a bad thin'."

I raised an optic ridge at Jazz as if daring him to say he thought I should turn into a kitten.

"But dat's not meh point," Jazz said, holding out his hand, palm up in a similar gesture to what I've seen Miko do when explaining something.

"Then what is your point, Jazz?" I asked.

"Meh point is dat ya have done useful things," Jazz said. "Ya can sniff out Energon. No other Bot has dat ability. Yer gift is unique and useful. So ya can' say yer useless."

"Ok, but I'm still not an Autobot," I said. "You still don't have to be nice to me."

"Ah don' have ta be nice ta my fellow Autobots either," Jazz said. "Ah could be mean ta 'em if Ah wanted ta."

"I doubt Optimus would be very happy with that," I said.

"No, but dat doesn' take da option 'way," Jazz said. "Ah'm nice ta everybody 'cause Ah choose ta be. Jus' 'cause yer not officially a 'Bot doesn' mean it's any different for ya."

"But why do you choose to be nice to me? Why do any of you choose to be nice to me?" I asked, getting up and starting to pace as I spoke. "I don't really get it! I show up out of nowhere and you guys let me stay here and then even when I cause nothing but trouble you forgive me and continue to be nice and…like a family. I don't understand. What have I done to deserve your kindness?"

"Whoa, whoa," Jazz was saying before I had even finished my tirade. He grabbed my flailing hands and held them together between us. "Easy there, little lady. Where is all of this coming from?" he asked and I noted that he dropped his accent, which told me he was being completely serious now.

My doors wings drooped and I realized I didn't really know the answer. "I dunno, I just.." I said and looked at the floor, trying to lightly pull my hands from Jazz' grip. He only tightened his hold on them and pulled me closer.

"You just," he prodded gently.

"I am confused," I said. "Part of me doesn't think I belong here, while part of me says I do. And I just don't know which is right." I shook my head. "I mean, I am not _that_ helpful. Sure I can sniff out Energon, but I haven't been much help otherwise. I hate sitting here while you guys go out on missions and feeling like a useless scrap pile. And what Ratchet said doesn't help." 

"What did Ratchet say?" Jazz asked and I could hear the confusion.

"That I wasn't ready for a mission that Optimus had invited me to go along on," I said, turning my head away. "I mean, he was under the influence of that fraggin' synthetic Energon, but it still hurt."

I heard the sound of a growl and flinched, trying to pull away from Jazz only to be pulled into his chest and have his arms wrap around me.

"Amelia," he said. "Everything happens for a purpose. Your arrival here was not just chance. You _do_ belong here. And if Optimus thinks you are ready for a mission, then you are. It doesn't matter what Ratchet or any of the rest of us say. You hear me? Next time Ratchet says you aren't ready, just tell me and I'll slag him for you." He tightened his hold around me and I buried my face in his chest.

"No," I said. "I don't want you to slag him. I mean, he was a jerk, but the synthEn was affecting him. I don't think he really realized fully what he was doing."

"Still, if it weren't for your help we never would've found the twins," Jazz said. "And the supply of Energon you led him and Ironhide to. He should know better."

I couldn't help but chuckle. "I should've known better than to tackle Optimus and scratch your face," I said, smiling now. "But under the influence of the glitch, it didn't cross my mind. Is it really so different?"

Jazz paused, pulling back. "No, I suppose not," he said. "Now ar' ya doin' ok?"

I wiped my optics with a hand and looked up at Jazz finally. "Yeah," I said. "Thanks, bro."

"No problem," he said, then paused. "Wait, did ya jus' call meh 'bro'?" 

"Yeah," I said, grinning at his expression of joy.

"Ya placed meh!" Jazz exclaimed and hugged me tightly and spun me around. "I can' believe it! Ah'm yer bro!"

I laughed a little. "Ok, Jazz," I said. "Now please stop spinning me."

"Oh, sorry," Jazz said, stopping though he kept hold of me so I didn't fall down in my disorientation. "Ah got a lil' carried 'way wit myself."

"I could tell," I said, giving him a look.

"A'right, now ya should finish yer Energon," Jazz said, setting me back down on the couch.

"Ya know, I really believe it now," I said as I picked the cup back up from the arm of the chair, where it had been sat when I had started pacing.

"Believe wat?" Jazz asked.

"That I belong here," I said, smirking behind the cup as I took a sip. "Thank-you."

Jazz grinned. "Good," he said. "Glad Ah was of service, sis."

I couldn't help but smile at the last word that he said. It felt nice knowing that I was as much family to the Bots as they were to me. Even if I wasn't officially an Autobot, I was unofficially apart of this team. Apart of this family. Unofficial, but as good as official. One of these days I was gonna have a talk with Optimus about making my status as an Autobot official. But for now, I would settle for being unofficially official.

After I finished the cup of Energon, we headed back to the med bay to check on how things were with Ratchet. When we arrived, Ironhide told us that he was all fixed up now and just needed some rest. He looked at me briefly and sighed before telling me that if I wanted to talk to him that I could. I thanked him and walked in, the door closing behind me.

No one else was in here, which meant it was just me and Ratchet. For some reason that fact made my spark pulse just a little hotter. I was nervous, because I had no idea what to expect from the mech. Was he back to normal? Was he still under the influence? I had to pause at the second thought, finding it rather amusing how much it resembled when humans wondered about alcohol or drugs. I had to shake my head to get rid of the thought.

Ratchet was sitting on the berth, looking at the floor and clearly deep in thought. I briefly considered leaving him to whatever was floating in his processor, but decided that if I did so I would only be stalling.

"Ratchet?" I asked tentatively.

Ratchet looked up and I could see the slight surprise on his face. "Amelia?" he asked. He turned back away. "I didn't think you would be back so soon…After the way…After the way I acted."

I rolled my optics and walked over. I took a seat next to him. "Quite frankly, you were a jerk," I said. "But that doesn't change the fact that I was worried about you."

I watched as Ratchet's hands clenched. "I-I'm sorry Amelia," he said. "I never meant to hurt anybody. Especially not you."

I froze at that last part, my own hands clenching in my lap. _Especially not me? _I thought. _Why?_ But no matter how much I wanted to know the answer to that unspoken question, I couldn't bring myself to ask it. Instead, I kinda just sat there, processor whirling.

"Amelia?" Ratchet asked after a few moments of silence. "Do you…forgive me?"

My spark clenched a little at the almost desperate tone his question carried. I realized he really didn't want me to hold what he had said against him. But yet, I needed to hear from him exactly what he was apologizing for.

"Ratchet," I said. "I understand you just wanted to help in doing what you did. Every time anybot goes through the bridge and I'm left behind I want so much to be able to help more than I do. When you said I wasn't ready, even after Optimus had invited me along, that hurt. I care about your opinion, Ratchet. But I also want you to realize that I've come a long way from the helpless and clueless femme I was a couple months ago."

"I do realize that, Amelia," Ratchet said lifting a hand, but he seemed to reconsider and placed it back on his lap. "It was wrong of me to say that. I don't know what I was thinking when I did."

"You weren't," I said, borrowing his line from just after he had fixed my glitch. I smirked a little. "This time you were the glitched one."

I looked up a little in time to see that Ratchet briefly smiled.

"I am sorry, Amelia," Ratchet said. "Regardless of what I said then, you are ready for missions. You proved that more than once."

I smiled a little, feeling my spark flutter slightly at the outright compliment from the mech.

"So," Ratchet said after a few moments of silence. "Do I have your forgiveness?"

I looked at Ratchet and though he was clearly trying to hide it, I could see the hope in his optics. I wondered why I just couldn't stay mad at this mech and why I had the sudden urge to just hug him and not let go. Instead, I settled for placing my hand on his.

"I forgive you," I said as he turned his hand over and grabbed hold of mine. "But, Ratchet?"

"What?" Ratchet said, looking relieved I forgave him.

"If you ever act like a druggie again," I warned him. "You won't have to worry about Megatron, because I'll slag you myself."

Ratchet chuckled slightly, squeezing my hand. "Don't worry," he said. "I've learned my lesson."

"No more testing things on yourself?" I asked, looking at Ratchet with what I was sure were pleading optics.

"No more," Ratchet agreed and then without warning he pulled me to him and wrapped his arms around me. "I promise."

I felt my emotions quiver as I held onto his arms and leaned into his embrace, feeling my spark warm and flutter. I closed my optics and drank in the moment, knowing it wasn't very often that Ratchet willingly gave anyone a hug. I had to wonder why he gave me this hug and why it seemed like he didn't want to let go. I didn't expect to be the one to finally pull away from the hug, as safe and content as it made me feel.

"I should let you get some rest," I said. "I don't want to be responsible for you not recovering fully."

Ratchet looked like he wanted to protest my leaving, but as I got up he said nothing, though he held onto my hand. I raised an optic ridge at him and he let go.

"See you later, Ratch'," I said before walking out of the med bay.

Over the next couple of weeks Ratchet was pretty much kept in med bay, which left the rest of us to share ground bridge duty. Optimus allowed me to accompany him on a mission to the artic to scout out what we thought might've been a mineable Energon source. That mission had turned up some addition to our small Energon supply, but not a whole lot compared to what was there. Much of the Energon there hadn't been mineable, which was rather disappointing, but we still got some and any we could get to before the Cons was a good thing. I also went on patrol several times with Jazz or Ironhide. When I wasn't on the missions or patrolling with them, I was on ground bridge duty.

Exactly two weeks after the incident with the synthEn, Ratchet was finally up and about, though he was restricted to base for more rest until we were all certain he was fully recovered. So naturally, he took up his post with ground bridge duty again and he no longer contested my going on missions. In fact I was about to head on one with the twins and Optimus.

"The signal is coming from this area here," Ratchet said, enlarging an area on the map that was on the screen. A little red dot was flashing and sending out rings, which I presumed was symbolic for the distress signal we had picked up.

"So we are going to help what we believe to be some Autobots?" I asked for clarification. Optimus nodded. "But what happens if it's a trap?"

"We cross that bridge when-if-we get to it," Sideswipe said. "But we have no reason to believe it is a trap."

I nodded in understanding, feeling no little amount of apprehension about this mission. It was my first mission since the incident with Shockwave that could possibly become dangerous. I mean, even on the scouting missions there was always the possibility of Cons showing up or even already being there, but I never really thought about it beforehand. This time we were pretty much going in blind and we were responding to a distress signal. It was very possible that Cons were already there and that they outnumbered those of us going. I questioned briefly if more of us should go, but I trusted Optimus's judgment.

Ratchet activated the ground bridge and I stared momentarily at the blue light of it as the twins left through it.

"Be careful," Ratchet said, placing a hand on my shoulder. "Don't do anything reckless."

"I'll try," I said, smirking slightly before following the twins, Optimus falling into step beside me.

On the other side of the ground bridge, we came out in a desolate plain. There was a lot of damage done by a large pod shaped thing that had obviously crashed here. Simply due to the size I knew it was a ship of some kind. Or maybe not even a ship, but perhaps an escape pod. I was not well versed in Cybertronian, or any alien, technology. I was learning, but I hadn't gotten to the datapads about ships and such yet.

"Whoever sent the signal, they traveled here by escape pod," Sunstreaker noted.

"That doesn't bode well for where they came from," Sideswipe said.

"It looks like the pod was shot several times," I pointed at the scorch marks that dotted the pod.

"Let us see who is in there," Optimus said, moving forward.

We searched the pod for the door and control panel that would allow us access. Unfortunately, we couldn't find it and we came to the grim conclusion that the pod had landed with the access hatch to the ground. Which left us with the option of rolling it or cutting open our own entrance.

"We can't roll it," Sideswipe said. "It might offline whoever is in there."

My door wings drooped at the perspective. "But how do we know we won't hurt them when we cut through the side?" I asked.

"Don't be such a pessimist," Sunstreaker said even as Optimus stepped up to the pod, his axe in his hand. "Optimus can handle it."

I watched as our leader and friend stood there with his optics closed. He seemed almost to be trying to sense the life within the pod and I got the feeling that he may have been conferring with the Matrix of Leadership he had taught me about that first day he took to telling me about Cybertron. I couldn't but be in awe when he opened his optics and expertly swung his axe into the side of the pod. I wasn't aware I was gaping until Sideswipe casually closed my mouth for me. Not that it did much good for my staring as part of the pod fell aside, giving us access.

"Amelia, stop staring," Sunstreaker said, lightly smacking the back of my helm.

"I'm sorry," I said, rubbing my helm and lowering my head slightly.

"It is alright," Optimus said, subspacing his axe. "I am aware several have stared when I have used the Matrix. It is nothing to be ashamed of."

I rubbed my head sheepishly before following Optimus into the pod. The twins stayed outside, watching for any sign of trouble. I looked around and was shocked to find that no one was even in here.

"It's….empty?" I said, it coming out more as a question.

"Indeed it is," Optimus said.

"An empty pod with a distress signal running?" I asked. "Somehow, I don't think it's a coincidence."

"It is not," Optimus agreed, pressing a button on the control panel.

I started and jumped behind Optimus when suddenly a hologram flickered to life above the control panel. I felt like a child for being startled, but Optimus merely placed a hand on my shoulder and I felt my edginess disappear and came around to stand next to him as we watched the hologram of what appeared to be a femme.

"This is Chromia…." the hologram spoke and some static interfered with part of the message. "…under attack….sent this message…coordinates for…cation…se hel…"

The hologram cut out and I frowned. "Chromia? Isn't she Ironhide's sparkmate?" I asked.

"Indeed," Optimus said. "She and Elita had taken a group of Autobots to get some younglings to safety shortly before my team and I left Cybertron."

"Elita?" I asked.

"Chromia's sister," Optimus explained. "She was my…she was very important to me."

"Well, then we should help them, shouldn't we?" I said. "If you dare say no, I'll smack you, even if you are my leader and I respect you big time. We can't do nothing."

"We will send a team to help them," Optimus said, placing a hand on my shoulder. "But I'll have you know that smacking your leader, no matter what the reason, is frowned upon."

I smiled up at him. "Hey, no one is immune to making stupid decisions," I said.

Optimus chuckled lightly and removed his hand from my shoulder. He typed on the console and retrieved the coordinates for the origination of the pod. Once he had them, we left the pod and called for a ground bridge. We went back to base, where we briefed the others on what we found. Ironhide immediately volunteered for the mission to retrieve the femmes and though I could Optimus would've liked to go as well, he was needed more here. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe also volunteered, as well as Jazz.

A couple hours later, Optimus and I went with the departing team to the military base that Ironhide and Jazz's ship they arrived in was kept to see them off.

"We'll see you when we get back," Ironhide said, placing his hand on my head in an affectionate gesture he used often.

"You better come back," I said, trying not to cry at our parting. The mechs were all family to me. "With the others too. I may not have not met them yet, but now I'm worried."

Ironhide chuckled. "Don't worry," he said. "Chromia and the others can hold their own until we get there."

"Yeah, you have nothing to worry about," Sideswipe said. "We'll kick those Cons afts and we'll all be back before you know it." He high fived his brother.

"Tell Ratch' dat Ah said he better not hurt ya while Ah'm gone, sis," Jazz said.

"Okaayy?" I said, raising my optic ridge at him. "I…will do that?"

Jazz laughed at how my statement came out as a question as Ironhide chuckled.

"Good luck," Optimus told the group. "I expect to hear from you as soon as you've secured the femmes and their team."

"Yes sir," Ironhide said.

"An' don' worry, OP," Jazz said. "We'll find 'em an' bring 'em home."

"That's all I ask," Optimus said "Good luck. Til all are one."

"Til all are one," the others said in unison before boarding their ship.

Optimus and I watched as they flew through the atmosphere until they were out of sight. I couldn't help but worry about them and wonder if I would ever see them again. I continued to stare after them until I felt Optimus's hand on my shoulder and I looked over to him and I could see the worry in his own optics.

"Sometimes, I wonder if I am a good leader," Optimus said. "I feel like I should be going with them. For Elita."

"You are an awesome leader, OP," I said. "You're more than an awesome leader. To me you're like an older brother. One I can always turn to for advice and know that you are most likely right. You feel like you should go because you obviously care a lot about this Elita. No one can blame you there. They will be back, I'm sure of it."

"You hold a lot of faith in my decisions," he noted.

"I trust you, Optimus," I said. "I don't doubt you. I don't think any of us doubt you. I admit, sometimes I question, but in the end I know you are usually right. I wouldn't have anyone else to follow."

"Your opinion is noted," Optimus said. "Thank you for your faith in me. I hope I prove it is not misplaced."

I grinned up at him. "Misplaced would be if I believed that ridiculous notion of Megatron's. 'Peace through tyranny' doesn't sound like anything that could possibly be true. It just screams 'lies'," I said. "Freedom is a much better cause. I know where I stand, even if it is not technically official."

Optimus smiled sadly. "As far as any of us are concerned," he said. "You are a part of this team. It does not matter that you do not bear our insignia."

"And I am thankful you guys have accepted me," I said. "You certainly didn't have to. But I am glad you did."

"We are glad to have you," Optimus said, squeezing my shoulder slightly. "Now, we should head back to base."

I nodded and Optimus released my shoulder as he called Ratchet for a return ground bridge. When we returned, the base felt rather empty, but not so empty to not feel like home. I knew this was where I belonged. All doubt I had was finally wiped away with the simple words from Jazz and Optimus's assurances that I was part of this team. I may not be able to go visit my old friends anymore, but that was ok. I could make it. I didn't remember the time from before anyway and I didn't fit in quite as well now that I wasn't human. But here I was home.

And I wouldn't trade this home for anything.


	20. The Prophecy

**A/N: **Sorry it took so long guys. I was distracted by a couple of annoying plot bunnies for one-shots and sick and school and all that. But here is the next update!

As a note I intended to do the entire episode of One Shall Fall in this chapter, but the plot bunnies and my muse made me do something slightly different. So the first part, where the prophecy is revealed, the mars cat pic that makes Ratch laugh, and Fowler informing the Bots of Cons stealing things, is here, but the continuation after that is next chapter, included in with however much of One Shall Rise part 1-3 I deem to put in the next chapter.

**Author's Replies:**

**Mercedes Wolfcry: **Glad you liked it. Sorry it took so long to get you this update.

**Sailor Shinzo: **Yeah. Just for a little while anyway. I do plan on showing their mission, though not till after I get through these next few chapters. We'll see how their mission goes. ;)

**GalaxyWarrioress1234: **Thank you! I am glad you have liked them all. While I wish I could say I love all my stories equally, I must admit AWA is my favorite. It's the one that got me started with my TF fics. Then I wouldn't have this one or my others if I hadn't started somewhere! Sorry it took so long to update.

**Luna Prime- Awesomeness: **Yeah, older brothers are awesome. :) Mine is off in California now, though we didn't always get along growing up. All is well between us now though. Glad you liked the chapter.

**Vivian Hale: **Lol. I suppose that is possible….but I just can't see Chromia using a holoform that looked like that, even if it was to throw off the Cons. Then again, maybe that's the point. True that Jazz. :) Aw Viv, let him have some fun. He just wants to comment on my story, which is welcome as far as I am concerned. ;P I am glad you liked it Viv.

**Princess Thil Galel: **Glad it did. :) And I dunno, you'd have to ask Jazz if he could do that. Lol. Not sure how well a bot can spin a human though. *tilts head in thought*Hmm…

**CatGirlFireflare: **Thanks! And of course I will do more! I'm not gonna leave the story hanging!

**MISCrazyaboutfanfics: **Thanks! I am glad you like it so much!

**annabellelennox: **Thanks. :)

And now! On with the chapter! *grin*

**Chapter 20: The Prophecy**

**~Autobot Base, Amelia's PoV~**

It was decidedly weird not seeing the four bots who had left around the base. At the same time, it was kind of nostalgic. It reminded me of when it was just those of us who remained and I was still human. The only difference was that occasionally Jack's mom came by to visit and I was an alien. But still, it didn't feel complete without them. I was worried and concerned over their mission and the only thing I could think to do was pray. If there was anything my old friends got me into the habit of, it was praying. And at times, it was the only thing I could think to do.

Even with the prayer, I still worried. I was worried even as I walked through the halls in the middle of night three days after the rescue team had left. I wasn't able to sleep, so I was trying to walk it off. Walking the dark halls seemed to sooth me and help me relax. It didn't help the droop in my door wings or the fact that I knew about half of our team was off on a dangerous mission. It didn't stop my processor from throwing different scenarios of what could happen to them at me. Some of those scenarios I would really rather not think about.

When I finally decided that walking was going to get me nowhere, I headed for the only place I knew I could get peace that wasn't my quarters. The base's library. Optimus had converted an old storage room into a library over the past few months apparently. It seemed to fit, as he did tell me that before he was a Prime, he was a librarian. That would explain why he had so many datapads, the equivalent of books. He had just finished the library shortly before the synthEn crap and we had transferred all datapads there.

I thought I was the only one awake, so when I walked into the library to find Optimus studying a datapad, I was surprised. He was sitting on one end of a couch that had another couch across from it. He looked up at me when I walked in and I stopped, becoming unsure.

"Oh, um," I said, fidgeting a little.

Optimus smiled slightly, though he looked troubled. "It is alright, Amelia," he said. "You are welcome to use this library whenever you want. Don't let me stop you."

"Oh, ok," I said. I bowed a little, a habit I had when thanking someone, that I wasn't quite sure where I got it from. "Thank-you."

"You are welcome," he said.

I moved into the library and searched the shelves for a datapad that would get my processor off of what it was on. I chose one about Cybercats, finding myself curious about the pets of Cybertron. With the datapad in hand, I settled myself on my stomach, laying across the couch across from Optimus. I kicked my legs lightly in the air as I began reading about the curious creature.

_Cybercats can make wonderful pets._

I lost interest the moment I read the first line. I sighed, realizing that in my current state, a book about Cybercats would not help me at all, as it would never hold my attention long enough to keep my processor from straying.

"Amelia," Optimus's voice had me looking over at the mech, who was looking at me in concern. "What is on your processor?"

I sighed and hung my head, letting my forehead hit the arm. "I am worried," I confided. "Scared, almost." I looked up at the Prime. "What if they don't come back?"

Optimus merely looked at me for a moment. He then set his datapad aside and motioned for me to join him on the couch, next to him. I obeyed and moved from the couch across from him to the spot next to him, allowing him to wrap an arm around me. I snuggled into his side as he gently placed his hand on the back of my helm as he tried to comfort me.

"You are in doubt," he noted.

"I'm scared for them," I said, lowering my head. "I don't want to lose the four of them. They're family to me, just as you are. And I'm also worried about the femmes. What if they don't make it in time? What if, even if they do, they never come back?"

Optimus tightened his hold on me and I had the feeling he had gone through the same scenarios I had. It came to mind that they were his friends too and he obviously cared a lot about the femme named Elita.

"They will come back," he said after a bit. He sounded so sure now that I looked up at him.

"How do you know?" I asked.

"I feel it," Optimus said.

And that was all I needed to hear to allow me to finally drift into sleep, too tired to even move away from Optimus's embrace. After all, if Optimus felt it, then it was likely true.

**~Morning, Amelia's PoV~**

I yawned and stretched out before I realized that I was not where I should be first thing in the morning. Instead of my bed in my quarters, I was on a couch and when I opened my optics I saw that I was in the library. I yawned again, trying to remember why I was in the library. It took me a bit, but when I finally remembered I sat up and looked around. Where was Optimus? Did I really sleep through him leaving even though I was cuddled against him? That was something that got me too. Ever since I had told him that he was like a brother, he was more open toward me. I had never seen it coming, that he would have moments where he was more the brother and less the leader. If only when no other bot was around.

I got up, stretching and peered around. It appeared as if Optimus had replaced the datapad I had been reading on the shelves. I moved my door wings consciously a couple times, making sure they weren't too stiff. I stretched and yawned again as I walked toward the door, trying to get fully awake. I noticed that on some mornings, I would be slow to come fully online. Whether it was just something that transferred from being human or something to be concerned about, I wasn't sure. I would have to talk to Ratchet about that.

When I reached the main area, I finally felt like I could stop yawning. I also noticed that Optimus was the only one already in there. I raised a brow at the fact he appeared to be studying some information.

"Did you recharge at all?" I asked, hand on my hip.

Optimus briefly turned to me, but then turned back to what he was studying. "No," he said simply.

I frowned, tilting my head. "Why?" I asked, growing concerned.

"I have been reading up on an ancient prophecy," he said. "One that's time is drawing near."

"Prophecy?" I asked. "How much credit can we really give to it, though?"

"That's not what concerns me," Optimus said.

"What's wrong?" Arcee asked as she and everybot else came into the main area. It seemed they all woke up at the same general time.

"Optimus is concerned over a prophecy, apparently," I informed them. I turned back to our leader. "What is the prophecy?"

"'It was written in the Covenant of Primus that 'when the 47 spheres align, a perpetual conflict will culminate upon a world forged from chaos. And the weak shall perish in the shadow of a rising darkness.'" Optimus said as Ratchet studied the screen as well.

"That's it?" Arcee asked. "No skies raining fire."

"Goes without saying," I said. "It is a doom prophecy."

"I say it's a load of hooey," Bulkhead said.

"I've always assumed the ancients were referring to our home planet," Ratchet said. "But seeing that Cybertron has been dark for eons."

"And considering what has befallen this planet since Megatron's arrival here," Optimus continued.

"Whoa whoa whoa," Bulkhead said. "We've known about these superstitions for ages and never gave them a second thought."

"Why all the ominous rumblings now?" Arcee asked.

"Because the planetary alignment to which the prophecy refers, is nearly upon us," Optimus said, still studying the computer screen.

"And it would seem its end point," Ratchet added as he looked at the star map. "Is Earth."

"Uh, crazy coincidence," Bulkhead said, his tone taking on a joking manner. Arcee and I both rolled our optics.

"How long we talking?" Arcee asked.

"A few days," Ratchet supplied. "At most."

My door wings drooped and I felt myself shiver a little. I wasn't sure whether I believed in prophecies, but it was still creepy to think about.

"However unsettling this revelation may be," Optimus said. "I am more concerned about those that may believe that the prophecy speaks to them alone."

I shivered as an image of red optics entered my vision in my mind. The red optics were on a face with lines between the optics and the mouth, which contained some very sharp looking teeth. It had a helmet that surrounded the face and large eyebrow looking things above the optics. I blinked and the image left. Confused, I murmured something about being back and headed back to the library.

When I got to the library, I began searching through the datapads, trying to find one that would aid me in my search. I found that was labeled 'Con Files' and took it out. Considering the face I had had in my mind had red optics, I figured that any information we had would be in this datapad.

Settling down on a couch, I began to study the datapad, wanting to know who popped into my processor. The more important question was why, but that could easily be explained because I had seen the face before in my dreams since Ratchet had fixed my glitch. It was a face that screamed evil, with the hatred and anger seemingly etched into it. I just didn't know who it was.

**~The Nemesis, Normal PoV~**

Megatron stood on the bridge of the Nemesis, angered by the lack of progress. The time of the prophecy was almost near and he did not have enough Dark Energon. He growled.

"I did not seek out the blood of Unicron merely to keep my spark aflame," the Decepticon leader said as Knock Out listened from his spot far behind him. "But to rule undead armies and conquer worlds."

All this wasn't exactly new to the Decepticon medic. Every Cybertronian, bot or con, knew that Megatron wanted to conquer the universe and rule over everything with an iron fist. Even when it had been thought they would win the war, Megatron still was not satisfied with merely ruling over Cybertron. He had planned to accumulate a fleet of battleships and conquer other worlds as well. And now, he planned to start with Earth and tear the place apart until he found the AllSpark.

"And to accomplish that, I require more than just this mere sliver which lies within me," Megatron continued speaking. "So, where is my Dark Energon?" He demanded loudly, turning to the only other being in the room and slamming his foot down.

"Out there Lord Megatron," Knock Out said smoothly, gesturing toward the outside. "Just waiting for you to reach out and pluck it!"

Megatron gave the medic/scientist a hard look, one eyebrow raised.

"But you shouldn't push yourself so hard," Knock Out said, taking a small step back. "You've had set backs, you were in stasis."

Megatron grabbed Knock Out by the mech's armor on his shoulder and lifted him off the ground and to optic level. Knock Out grunted and tried to free himself so he could get safely back on the ground, as was his preferred place.

"Precisely why I must make up for lost time!" Megatron said in fury. "I can see the future, vividly. But I must ensure its outcome. For I am the rising darkness of which the prophecy speaks!"

**~Autobot Base, Amelia's PoV~**

I glared at the picture on the datapad. I hadn't been disturbed while I had done my research, for which I was grateful. No, I was glaring about what I had learned. The face apparently belonged to Megatron. The same Megatron we fought against. The same Megatron that was responsible for poisoning Cybertron. The same Megatron that was, apparently, once Optimus's friend. And the very same that was now threatening Earth.

I sighed, turning the datapad off and putting it away before leaving the library to rejoin the others. Now that I knew what I had been seeking, I just wanted to be near them. If things were gonna get ugly in a few days, I wanted to spend some time with them first. I had already spent the entire day reading, as did Optimus apparently, as he was still studying the screen when I returned. The kids were here now though, spending the weekend with us, and they were on Raf's laptop.

"Pass," Jack said as they scrolled through picture. "Nu-uh. Kid in a costume."

I raised a brow at them as I moved closer to get a better look. "What are you doing?" I asked, curiously.

"Searching the web for anything about our guys," Miko said casually.

"Conspiracy websites, things like that," Raf said as he scrolled to the next picture.

"Hold on," Jack said. "The camera sure loves Bee."

"What can you do?" Miko asked and flopped back on the couch. "When you're a superstar, you're paparazzi bait."

"Waait, is that Bumblebee?" Ratchet asked, looking over.

"On a conspiracy website," Raf said. "Where users post evidence of close encounters. But we have it under control Ratchet."

And I wondered in the meantime how many people saw it.

"We just scrub and replace Bee with," Raf said as he typed on his computer.

A cat on two legs wearing an orange jumpsuit showed up in place of the picture of Bee and said, "Mars cat says, 'take me to your feeder'."

Ratchet laughed and I decided right then that he should laugh more often. His laugh was music to my ears, even though it took the children by surprise.

"Ratchet actually laughed?" Miko asked as she and Raf stared in shock. Jack just looked pleased though.

"Uh," Ratchet said, turning his head away. I tilted my head. Was it a bad thing to be able to laugh?

"Huh," Jack said, turning to the boss bot as Ratchet went back to work. "Optimus! Want to see something funny?"

Optimus briefly glanced over. "No," he said simply. He was just full of one word answers today.

"Don't take it personally," Arcee told the children as she walked up with Bulkhead. "Primes are just built that way."

"Never seen Optimus laugh, cry or lose his cool," Bulkhead said.

"While Optimus certainly keeps his emotions in check, I've known him far longer than any of you have," Ratchet said. "And he was different before he was made a Prime."

"Optimus wasn't always a Prime?" Raf asked.

"On Cybertron one isn't born into greatness," Ratchet said. "Rather one must earn it."

"So different how?" Miko asked. "We talking party animal?"

"No, no," Ratchet said. "Optimus was more like…" he looked at the children briefly, "…Jack."

"What? I'm nothing like Opti…" Jack started to say, but was cut off by an incoming message.

"Prime!" Agent Fowler's voice came from the computer.

Optimus answered and we all turned our attention to the federal agent as he filled us in on why he was calling. Apparently some tech was being stolen from different places. They had thought it was MECH, but a picture gotten of Soundwave proved otherwise. Miko offered to have Raf swap it for a funny cat, but she was pretty much ignored. Fowler gave us a list of things that had been stolen so far and Ratchet informed us that there was only one thing missing if the Cons were building another Space Bridge.

"Well," I said after the communication ended. "Now what?"

"Now, we wait," Optimus said. "And stop the Cons in their tracks when they strike. For now, we should all get some rest. We'll need it."

We all acknowledged his words, though I almost hesitated. I couldn't deny that I was concerned, but at the same time I had to question the credibility of the prophecy. But before I could hesitate long enough to ask Optimus about it, Ratchet dragged me off for a check-up. I had to give the mech credit for not giving me a single check-up within the past few days, but I still thought he was a little overly concerned about me when I compared it to the others, who only got check-up once a week or when they returned from missions.

"I still think you're paranoid," I commented once we were in the med bay and I was taking a seat on the berth I typically defaulted to. Strangely enough, it was the same berth I had been on when I had first made the transformation. And the same berth I had ended up on after being sedated in the 'Glitch Incident' as that day was now known as.

Ratchet made a noise and looked away slightly. "I merely want to be sure you are alright," he said. "Especially after the Glitch Incident."

My door wings drooped a little. "Yeah, yeah," I said. My door wings perked up a little as I suddenly remembered something. "Though that reminds me, I have a question and I don't know if it is serious or if I'm just paranoid as well."

Ratchet seemed to tense with some unknown fear. He turned to me, pausing in his calibrations of his scanner, hand hovering over the button he was about to press. "What's wrong?" he asked.

I shrunk back a little, almost losing my nerve to ask him the question now that I had his undivided attention. But I couldn't risk another glitch incident like the last one. I had caused enough trouble. "I've noticed that on some mornings, my systems online rather sluggishly," I said. "Not every morning, just some mornings. And I don't know if it's just something that carried over from my human days or if I should be concerned."

I felt the tingle of a scan, the same kind that Jazz had given me that morning after the synthEn crap. I could almost feel proud of myself for being able to tell what kind of scan was being performed.

"Hmm," Ratchet said. "Well, you're not low on Energon. Did one of the others give you some Energon when it came time?"

I nodded. "Jazz did," I said. "While you were…incapacitated." I flinched at the knowledge that Ratchet had had such a bad wound. I was sure Ratchet didn't miss it, but he didn't comment.

Ratchet nodded, clearly glad someone took care of me. He consulted his scanner and pressed some more buttons, possibly recalibrating it.

"It is possible that it is just a trait carried from your days as a human," Ratchet said. "But I'd like to run some scans to be sure it's nothing serious."

I nodded in understanding. Since the glitch, and even more so since I started going on missions, I was gaining more and more of an understanding of why it was important to stay in top shape. You never knew what could happen and I certainly didn't want to face down another glitch like the last one again. It was hard to tell what would happen in that case. Though…

"Um," I said, hesitantly. My voice was small when I continued. "Do you…need to poke around my head with me out of it again?"

Ratchet briefly looked back at me from where he started typing something into the computer, but then turned back. "Not like last time, no," he said. "Though I will need to monitor you stats and such as you recharge."

Well, that wasn't as bad. "Oh," I said. Despite not being as bad, it still wasn't something I was comfortable with. But if I learned anything from the Glitch Incident, it was that sometimes I just needed to suck it up and deal with it.

"What? No argument?" Ratchet asked, a hint of teasing in his tone.

I rolled my optics. "What do you want me to argue? No, I'd rather glitch again?" I asked. I shook my head as he walked over. "I don't like it, but I learned last time that I should just suck it up and take it like a bot."

Ratchet chuckled slightly.

"But that doesn't mean I don't think you are paranoid with the frequent check-ups," I said.

"And I still just want to be sure nothing is wrong with your processor," Ratchet said as he hooked a couple wires to the spot where my neck met my head.

"I don't know if I'm insulted you always worry about my processor or touched," I said, falling into our usual routine banter whenever he gave me check-ups.

"Should I take your constant need to banter during our check-ups to mean you are comfortable with them?" Ratchet asked.

I paused, momentarily stumped at the change from how our bantering usually went. I tilted my head to look back at him with a questioning look. "No," I said simply. "I am far from there. But I trust you and our bantering distracts me enough to let me appear to be comfortable so I don't make you think I don't trust you." The charade over, I was not about to lie to Ratchet about how I really felt about medical procedures. But I also wanted to be sure he knew I trusted him.

Ratchet seemed to pause, then he sighed. "You wouldn't be able to do this with anyone else, would you?" he asked.

"No," I said. "But…why would I anyway? Last I checked, you're the only medic here."

"You never know," Ratchet said. "Some med bot else could show up. And what if something happened to me?"

"The only thought that I come up with to that question is that I would slag whoever did something to you," I said, crossing my arms. "And then what? I don't know." I waved an arm helplessly in the air, oblivious to how awkward Ratchet seemed to look now. I yawned and stretched a little. "Now, I think I'm gonna recharge."

Ratchet seemed to come out of a sort of stupor as I curled up for some much needed rest. "Good night," he noted.

"G'night," I said, optics already closed and already half way to recharge.


	21. Darkness on the Horizon

**A/N: **Ha! Yay! I got this chapter done before I have to put my stories aside for a week to finish my homework. *grin* Homework's evil with its interfering of my writing. T.T So those of you reading my other stories, it may be awhile before I get my next update(which is for IOW-TTT) up. I have an essay for Chemistry to write as well as an art essay.

**Author's Replies:**

**Sailor Shinzo: **That's right. And special role? Define special role.

**Luna Prime- Awesomeness: **Aw, Ratchet's just shy and awkward about it right now. He'll eventually come around.

**Vivian Hale: **Lol. Aw Viv, that's ok. It's not bad to sound like Jazzy. :) Thanks Jazz. I am glad you two like it so far. I hope I can continue to please.

**Princess Thil Galel: **Lol. Don't worry, you'll get your RatchetxAmelia moment eventually. Just not yet. :)

**CatGirlFireFlare: **Thanks!

**prowl fan1011: **PM me and we can talk more details before I decide. I'm not entirely sure what you're asking here. But thanks for reading and liking! :D

**KayleeChiara: **Thanks! I am glad you like it. And I will keep your advice in mind. :)

And now! On with the story!

**Chapter 21: Darkness on the Horizon**

**~Amelia's Pov~**

I yawned, stretching my arms out in front of me the moment I came online. I opened a single optic as I continued my morning stretch to find that Ratchet was studying some data popping up on a computer. I mentally rolled my optics at him and wondered worriedly if he had slept at all. I was kept from saying anything by a yawn as I stretched out more, not fully aware of how much I probably resembled a stretching Cybercat as I did so. I curled back in on myself and rubbed at my optics. I could feel Ratchet's optics on me as I moved my door wings a bit.

"I see you are awake," Ratchet said.

"Mmm-hmm," I replied, staying curled up with optics closed. I really didn't feel like getting up just yet.

"Hmmm, well, the brightside is that you don't have any more processor problems," Ratchet reported. "Your slow onlining process must just be a trait carried from your human days."

"That's nice Ratchet," I said, unaware of the fact that the mech had moved to my side until I felt a hand gently rest on my cheek. I opened my optics and looked up at him. "Ratchet?" I asked, trying to read the odd emotion in his optics.

Ratchet seemed to realize what he was doing and pulled back suddenly. He shook his head and looked torn between staying and leaving. In the end, he ended up rushing out of the med bay. I tilted my head as a door wing quirked to the side.

"Now what was that all about?" I wondered out loud. I tilted my head to the other side as my door wings twitched. "I feel like I'm missing something here."

Shrugging it off, I took the wires off of my helm and moved off of the medical berth. I stretched again once I was standing, still confused as to what had just happened. Looking around, I thought about what I was going to do. Deciding that if things were about to get troublesome, and if Optimus was right then they were, I should get some target practice in. I didn't want to be caught being the useless one.

Leaving the med bay, I took a left and headed for the Safe, which was the training room. The room wasn't that far from the med bay and the wall was repaired from when Ratchet had thrown Bulkhead through it. My door wing twitched when I thought about that. But I pushed it out of my processor as I entered the room and looked between the shooting range and the obstacle course.

"I think, target practice," I said, walking over to the shooting range and choosing a weapon from the weapon's rack.

I chose a Neutron Assault Rifle, which I preferred to use during training. I was always given the option of putting any of these weapons into my subspace, to use if the need arose, but I had always been content with the Ion Blasters built into my servos and the Energon Battle Pistol I could pull out of my back plates. I had discovered these weapons during one of my many training weapons with Ironhide. The Ion Blasters had a fast rate of fire and had a good accuracy rate, meaning my shots wouldn't go wide unless _I_ messed up. The Energon Battle Pistol was much like a sniper rifle, with a long firing range. I had to be very precise to effectively use it, but if I ever succeeded in hitting my target with it, I'm told it'll deal a lot of damage. Not that I was that good at using it. I was definitely not a sniper.

I spent the next couple hours practicing my aim and skill with my weapons and the Assault Rifle. I ran the obstacle course once before placing the Assault Rifle into my subspace, loaded for quick use in case of emergency. I also put an extra ammo pack into my subspace just in case. I decided it would be good to have another weapon on me that I could use with any accuracy and not rely on luck as I did with the Battle Pistol.

I left the Safe and headed to the main area to join the others. When I reached it, I found that most of the bots weren't present. Of the humans, only Jack and Miko were here and they were both playing Halo on the Xbox that Miko had brought from her home to add to the collection of video games I had brought with me while I was still human and the racing game that had already been here. Ratchet was the only Bot here other than myself and he was standing at the big computer, the stats for the bots on one screen, a map of the world on another and the middle was filled with information that I couldn't even guess at. I wasn't the greatest at reading Cybertronian, it took me awhile to translate even just a short paragraph.

"Where's everyone at?" I asked, looking around.

"To intercept the Cons at a highly fortified military base, by human standards," Ratchet said. "Bumblebee is dropping Raf off before joining the others."

My right door wing twitched a little. I spent all that time training so I wouldn't be useless and I missed my chance at a mission? Scrap.

"Ratchet!" Optimus's voice came from the computer. His voice sounded urgent and put me immediately on edge. "Bridge us back! Now!"

"Must be a Bot down," Ratchet mused, clearly worried, but hiding it better than I was.

Jack and Miko both moved closer to the railing, abandoning their game and waiting anxiously with me. I had to fight not to pace in anxiety as I waited for the Bridge to activate. When Ratchet activated the Bridge, he walked over and stood next to me as we waited, clearly prepared to take the injured to the med bay. He placed a hand on my shoulder in an attempt to calm me down when I started fidgeting, probably worried I would dart through and check on things myself. I'd lie if I said I didn't want to, but his tight grip held me in place and I wasn't about to fight with the medic.

After a few moments, two of the Bots finally walked through the Ground Bridge. It was Arcee and Bumblebee, and Arcee held an unconscious Raf in her arms.

"What happened?" Ratchet asked, his grip on my shoulder getting painful as it tightened.

"Megatron," Arcee said, saying the name with venom.

"Quick! To my laboratory!" Ratchet said, referring to his med bay.

We all quickly dashed to the med bay, where Arcee gently laid Raf down on a medical gurney that was the right size for humans.

"I'm calling Mom," Jack said, pulling out his cell phone.

"Your mother may be a nurse, but does she know anything about the effects of Energon on the human body?" Ratchet asked, his tone betraying his worry as he sounded angry but there was that slight difference between it and when he was really angry.

"How much do you know of the human body? Enough to be certain you can help Raf?" Jack asked in the same tone.

Ratchet paused and his optics fell to the ground as Jack walked off to call his mom. I whirred worriedly and knelt down next to Raf's gurney with Bumblebee.

"Hang in there Raf," I said silently as I took a finger and brushed a few strands of hair that had fallen in his face back.

Bee whirred worriedly as Ratchet waved us away so he could take some scans. I placed a hand on Bee's shoulder as we joined Arcee out of Ratchet's way. It was as much for my own comfort as it was for him. It wasn't long before Jack's mom show up and she and Ratchet clashed some as they argued over what to do for him.

Bee whirred angrily and punched the wall, leaving a good-sized dent in it. Arcee responded immediately, pinning the mech to the wall.

"Bee! Listen!" Arcee said. "You think I don't know what it's like to watch a partner…" she paused very briefly as she glanced at Raf, "…harmed. Revenge won't help Raf right now."

"He needs you to be calm, Bee," I said, adding to what Arcee was saying. "You just need to be here for him."

Arcee released Bee and he looked sadly at the smallest being in the room. He knelt down near Raf and held his hands over his face as June checked Raf's breathing and heart rate. I placed a hand on his shoulder and watched worriedly, filled with apprehension for the situation. I wished I could do something to help, but even if I was once human, that didn't mean I understood anything that would help Raf.

**~Normal PoV~**

Ratchet looked briefly at the two door-winged bots. His spark felt for the yellow mech, who was crouched and looked as devastated as a bot could be. He couldn't blame him, the two were very close to each other. Raf thought of Bumblebee as family and he knew the yellow mech thought the same. Ratchet didn't understand at first, but as time had gone by he had grown to understand.

His attention switched to the femme who stood beside him, Amelia. He took in the way her door wings were drooped and the worry on her face. She looked torn between running off somewhere, possibly to get revenge on the one responsible for Raf's condition, and curling into a ball much like the one Bumblebee was in. His spark clenched at seeing her in this condition as much as at the predicament causing it. She never voiced it out loud, at least not to him, but he knew she couldn't bear the thought of losing any of her friends she had here.

He then looked at the prone form of Raf on the gurney as Ms. Darby checked his vitals and things. His spark sank at the fact that he had not bothered with learning human medicine. Well, more than he had learned while dealing with Amelia's transformation. If he had, he might have some idea as to what to do.

"**Ratchet," **Optimus called through the comlink. **"How is Rafael?"**

"**It is too soon to know," **Ratchet said.

"**He is in good hands,"** Optimus said.

"**Not mine, Optimus,"** Ratchet said, his voice betraying his feelings of sadness over the comm. **"Curse my Cybertronian pride. We accepted these humans into our lives yet I bothered to learn so little of their science…or medicine." **He ended with a dejected and regretful tone.

"**Pull yourself together, Ratchet," **Optimus said, his tone as calm and confident as it always was. **"Rafael needs you."**

"**And I have grown to need him," **Ratchet said, looking back at the youngest human again.

"**Have faith, Ratchet," **Optimus told his old friend. **"We need a Ground Bridge. Lock onto my coordinates and activate it."**

"**Right away," **Ratchet said. Sighing, he retreated from the med bay to activate the Bridge.

**~Amelia's PoV~**

I hated not knowing if someone was going to be ok. I knew between Ratchet and June they would come up with something, but it was still nerve wracking waiting. Especially when I refusing both things that part of me screamed to do in favor of standing by Bee for some form of support. Part of me wanted to run off and slag Megatron, as I knew Bee wanted to, and another part of me wanted to curl in a ball much like how Bee currently was and cry my spark out. Instead, I forced myself to remain standing by Bee's side, hand laying on his shoulder to offer what support I could. I forced myself to remain put and simply prayed that a solution would be found.

I don't know how long it was until June and Ratchet started arguing again, when June declared she wanted to take Raf to the hospital. Bulkhead had joined us at some point, but I was unaware of when that was. It felt like forever had passed though.

"Ms. Darby," Ratchet protested. "Your human doctors won't be able to comprehend what's afflicting him. Not without a decade of study."

"I don't have time to argue Ratchet!" June said angrily.

"Regardless! Your doctors won't be able to help him," Ratchet said, turning to the computer. "The effects of an Energon blast on an Autobot is bad enough, but for a human…" he paused. "…but I'm not getting any readings. How could I not have seen this? Rafael is being plagued by Dark Energon."

We all shared worried looks.

"So, how do we fix that?" I asked, certain Ratchet would have an answer accompanying this revelation.

"We must expel it, the only way I know how," Ratchet said. "I need Energon!"

"Wait, but you said Energon was poison to humans," June said.

"Ordinarily, yes," Ratchet said. "But I'm counting on the Dark Energon already invading his body to meet it, head on. Thereby expelling both forms of the substance."

Bee chirped, immediately volunteering some of his Energon to help his charge. I would've pointed out that we could use the Energon from the cubes, but I understood he wanted to be useful to his friend. I wasn't about to stop him from helping. Ratchet ordered Jack and June to take Raf into the Energon chamber(that's what I've dubbed it anyway) and they did, though June didn't look too happy about being stopped from taking the young boy to the hospital. As the two conscious humans exited the chamber, Ratchet took some of Bee's Energon and I hit the button to close the chamber.

Quickly, Ratchet placed the newly filled container of Energon into the dispenser thingie. He moved to the controls for the chamber and hit the switch. We all waited anxiously as the chamber filled with a very bright and blue light that had the humans shielding their eyes. When the light disappeared completely, I pressed the button to open the chamber again from my position next to Ratchet and we waited anxiously for any sign that it worked.

Raf stirred and the three other humans rushed in, as did Bee. June checked his vitals and reported with relief that they were stablizing. I sighed with relief and found myself leaning slightly on Ratchet. I realized a little too late I was doing so to stop myself, but I tried to casually stand back up straight, slightly embarrassed. If it had bothered the medic though, he didn't show it, though he did spare me an unreadable glance, during which I tried to look normal. He turned his attention back to the humans after a moment though.

I mentally sighed when his attention turned back away from me and walked over to the humans, crouching down next to them. Raf looked up at me as Miko moved from giving him a huge hug.

"Welcome back, Raf," I said. "Glad you're ok."

Bee beeped and chirped, communicating his own relief at the turn out.

"Thanks-" Raf started to say something.

"You let Optimus face Megatron by himself?" Arcee's angry voice interrupted our relieved congregation.

We all turned to see Arcee glaring daggers at Bulkhead, who looked appropriately frightened of the smaller bot.

"It's not like he gave me a choice," Bulkhead defended himself.

"Regardless, we must find him," Ratchet said, glad that one catastrophe had been avoided.

We all moved to the main area, June and Jack rolling Raf with us, because we knew if we left him in there, he'd just get up and come anyway. Plus I think June was still planning on taking him to the hospital, which would be easier if she didn't have to go back to the med day to do so. Regardless of her motivation for her want to take Raf to the hospital, I kept an optic on her as Ratchet began searching for Optimus.

"I can't believe you left Optimus to fight Megatron on his own," Arcee grumbled to Bulkhead.

"I didn't have a choice Arcee," Bulkhead said.

"Don't argue guys, that won't help anything," I butted in, moving between the bots. "Bulkhead had to get the generator out of there, Arcee. It's not like he could be of help while lugging that things around, it's huge." I indicated the generator that was sitting off to the side. "Besides, OP ordered him back. It wasn't his choice."

"Fine, but that doesn't mean I'm happy about it," Arcee said grouchily.

"And here I thought Ratchet was the grouchy one," I said, trying to put some kind of humor into the situation.

"Haha," Arcee said, though she obviously found some humor in that.

"How is this possible?" Ratchet wondered out loud.

"What's wrong?" I asked as he activated the Ground Bridge.

"We need to get Optimus out of there! Now!" Ratchet said.

The tone of his voice had me pushing aside my questions and darting through the Ground Bridge right next to Arcee. The two of us froze at the sight we were met with on the other side. A volcano was erupting, but instead of magma, it was spitting out a purple substance. The air was thick with a smell that was almost like Energon, but something was different about the smell.

"Dark Energon erupting from a volcano?" Arcee asked in disbelief.

I was vaguely aware of Bulkhead driving right into Megatron, knocking him away from Optimus, as she spoke. Ratchet came through not far behind.

"Don't stand there and gawk, help me get Optimus back to base," Ratchet called to us.

I was by Optimus's side in less than a Nano-Klik. Ratchet blinked at me, looking momentarily stunned how fast I responded. I merely shrugged. Arcee stood as a guard as Ratchet and I helped Optimus to his feet, supporting him between us. I made sure I had a good hold of our leader as we walked toward the Ground Bridge. As we walked through, I heard Arcee call to Bulkhead to hurry up and then heard his engine as he transformed and followed us, entering base just behind us.

"Easy Optimus," Ratchet said as we helped him to a spot he could sit down. "From the looks of it, you've been exposed to a massive amount of Dark Energon."

"I am not the only one," Optimus said, glancing at where Raf was recovering from his own encounter with the dark stuff.

Ratchet and I helped him sit on a medical berth that was in the main area. I stayed by Optimus's side as Ratchet moved slightly away. The boss bot looked over at Raf in concern.

"Hey," Raf said, clearly happy to see the mech was back in one piece.

"He's lucky to be alive," June said, clearly agitated.

"Megatron found more of the dark stuff?" Jack asked as he walked down the steps, Miko right behind him.

"A whole volcano full," Arcee said.

"The question is how?" Bulkhead asked.

"No, the question is what?" Ratchet said. "As in, what in the world is the blood of Unicron doing here, on Earth?"

"The Con killed a Unicorn?" Miko asked.

I face-palmed as the others all looked at her.

"Make believe horse with a horn on its head," Miko explained. "Prances around all sparkly."

"No Miko, Unicron," I said, door wings twitching. I tilted my head. "What's Unicron?"

"An ancient evil," Optimus explained.

"Whose fossilized blood comprises the substance we know as Dark Energon," Ratchet further elaborated. "As legend would have it."

"You're telling me, this Unicron is some sort of boogie man?" June asked.

Everybot looked to Miko for an explanation.

"Make believe creepy guy who hides in your closet," Miko said.

"No," Ratchet said. "No, Ms. Darby. Unicron is very real. That is, while I believe that Unicron once existed, I just don't subscribe to the theory that his primordial life fluid is the substance which…harmed Raf."

"I've heard enough," June said, sounding as fed up as she was saying she was. "Jack, help me get Raf into the car, I'm taking him to the hospital."

"But Mom, I thought you said he was getting better," Jack protested.

"Raf needs to be seen by a real doctor," June said.

Ratchet hung his head and I felt suddenly defensive of the poor mech.

"Hey now," I said. "Ratchet is a real doctor. No need to be harsh."

June turned her glare at me and I squeaked a little, sliding a little behind Optimus as if he could save me from the woman's wrath.

"Raf's family needs to know what happened," June declared, still wheeling Raf away as Jack tried to convince her not to. "His real family."

That made me feel indignant. "We are as much his family as they are," I said, moving out from hiding behind Optimus and kneeling slightly as I tried to explain. "Family is not just bloodline, you know."

"What would you know of human customs?" June asked, glaring daggers at me. "You don't even remember most your time as a human. His blood family _is_ his real family."

I back pedaled back to my spot by Optimus, who looked at me in concern as my door wings drooped and a sad whirring sound came from my engine. I found that to be a low blow and hurtful, completely unnecessary.

"Mom!" Jack said. "That was uncalled for."

"Don't you talk to me in that tone Jackson Darby," June said.

"Mom, Raf's family can't protect him," Jack said, trying again to stop his mother. "Not like they can." He motioned to the group of Bots.

"June," Optimus chose to address the woman now. He stood and took a few steps toward her. "It deeply grieves me that I have failed. But I assure you that I will do everything in my power to be sure no further harm comes to our human friends, or any human, ever again."

June stopped and looked up at the large mech. "Optimus, they're only children," she said. "They should be worried about grades, prom dates, pimples! Not their own survival."

"Mom, Dark Energon is pouring out of the Earth, it doesn't do that," Jack said. "This could be about everyone's survival, not just ours."

"You're coming with me," June demanded. "All three of you. And they will not be coming back."

"I understand," Optimus said as Bee and I whirred unhappily. "Ratchet activate the Ground Bridge."

"No need!" June said. "I'll see myself out, thank-you."

"That's it?" Miko demanded, looking up at the large red and blue mech. "Just goodbye. What about our freedom to choose?"

"That may fly on their planet, Miko but not here," June called. "Get in the car."

"You're not my mother," Miko said, crossing her arms and staying right where she was.

"Miko," Bulkhead said.

"Neither are you!" Miko said, clearly distressed at the thought of leaving.

"Well I am yours," June said, looking at Jack.

Jack looked back at us and then at his mom. He looked to the floor. "I'm staying," he said. "I'm sorry."

"I am too," June said, glaring harshly at her son. She shut the back door, shutting Raf inside and then got into the driver's seat.

I watched in sadness as the car drove away, Raf looking sadly out the back windshield. Bee whirred, his door wings as low as they could go as he hung his head.

"I hardly find that fair," I said once the vehicle was out of sight.

"Life's not fair," Jack said, clearly upset about his mother's actions.

I agreed, but didn't say anything as I turned and walked away, needing to find some sort of solitude to sort through my emotions. As I headed for the library, I was unaware of the concerned glances sent my way by both Ratchet and Optimus and their shared look of worry. When I reached the library, I went directly for the row of datapads about the Golden Age of Cybertron, hoping I could get lost in history and feel better quick enough I wouldn't miss out on a mission because I was sulking.

I don't know how long it was before someone joined me in the library. I was barely able to bring myself to look up at Optimus as he neared. Immediately I felt like a sparkling.

"Hey," I said, my voice small. "I apologize for leaving like that. The situation upset me and I was worried I might snap unnecessarily at somebody."

"I understand, but staying in here and reading is not gonna solve our problem," Optimus said. "June and Raf have returned, Bumblebee fetched them when we detected a tornado forming in the direction they were headed."

My door wings grew stiff as I grew worried. "Are they ok?" I asked.

Optimus nodded and I felt myself relax. "I came by to inquire if you would like to accompany me on a scouting mission," he said

"A scouting mission?" I asked, setting the datapad on the table in anticipation.

"Yes," he said, and I could tell he was satisfied that I would be going with him, clearly by my reaction. "To see if we can find evidence of our theory."

"Theory?" I asked.

Optimus told me they believed that Unicron resided at Earth's core and not the magma that human science has indicated. He also gave me a short version of the story of the Primes vanquishing Unicron and their theory of gravity causing Earth to form around his offlined form.

"When do we leave?" I asked after his explanation.

"Now, if you are ready," Optimus said.

"I am," I said, standing up and heading to the main room with Optimus.


	22. Unicron's Riseand Fall

**A/N: **Holy cow man! This chapter is 21 pages and 6,294 words long! The longest single chapter I've ever written in my entire lifetime! O.O…Unless I have a chapter that long in A World Apart, but I don't think I do…

Now that I got my amazedness out of my system…I have a few things to say before I get on with the chapter.

First, this is the last chapter of following any episodes exactly. From here on it will be more different. There will eventually be a point where the happenings cross again, because when I watched the three part season opening for season 2 I discovered that some of the things I had planned actually happens in the show. :o I was shocked. So there are a few things that will be similar, but beyond maybe some of Megatron's deceit then things won't be exactly the same on purpose. I apologize if things seem too close for my words to be true in the future, but that is true.

Second, next chapter I am switching gears a bit and showing what happens elsewhere. As in, we're moving away from Amelia and the others for a chapter or two. I am going to be showing what is happening with Ironhide, Jazz and the twins if you are wondering. So we're kind of going back in time a bit. More will be explained there when it comes.

And thirdly, I am going to make a note here for my readers who read my other stories as well. For a week or two I am going to be focused solely on this story. I have more than one reason for this, but one of the main ones is that Sci-Fifan95 and I are having a chapter where our stories cross and I need to get to the chapter it happens in this one, because we want to post the chapter in our respective stories at the same time to avoid spoiling each other's story for anyone who reads both.

I do highly recommend reading his story, Fate Calls, because it is really good.

So what that means for you guys, is a very slim possibility of an update for my other stories for a couple weeks at most(give or take a few days), and several consecutive updates for this story in particular, I predict about five more chapters before the chapter we have where our stories cross. Give or take one or two of those between chapters. I plan on at least one chapter of Hide's group's mission, hopefully two, and then at least two, hoping for three though, more before I reveal what said chapter conceals. ;)

**Author's Replies: **(if I ever miss anyone here, I'm sorry! Sometimes things get crazy around here…)

**Sailor Shinzo: **Hmm, well kinda. Not sure she actually plays a big role here specifically, but something is alluded to in this chapter. As for June, yes she knows Amelia was once human, but she also knows she lost the majority of her memories from being human, so she was basing her thoughts on what the poor femme knew of humanity off that. She was upset and sometimes we lash out in ways we don't want to and don't mean to when we are upset.

**CatGirlFireflare: **Glad you think so!

**Luna Prime- Awesomeness: **Interesting? You have no idea. :) I do believe you will be pleased with that particular part of this particularly long chapter. :)

**Vivian Hale: **Yup, I agree. Inner thoughts do count for something. Yup, you were there Jazz. And you'll be back too. ;) In fact we're gonna find out what you and the others have been up to this next chapter! :D Lol. Dagnabbit is a fun phrase. XD It makes me laugh. :)

**Princess Thil Galel: **Indeed. Scrap is about to start, that's true. And who knows when it will truly end? *chuckles mysterious author chuckle*…sorry, perhaps I've had too much mountain dew…

**GalaxyWarrioress1234: **Haha. Don't worry, it will come, I promise. You'll just have to wait a little longer. ;P *fails to mention how long a 'little longer' is*

**KayleeChiara: **Well, here it is! :D

You know, I never realized just how many consistent readers I have until Sci-Fifan95 mentioned it to me…Now I feel happy. :)

**Chapter 22: Unicron's Rise…and Fall**

**~Amelia's PoV~**

My door wings twitched a little with my unease. I didn't wander very far from Optimus as we checked out the epicenters from the multiple earthquakes that had occurred at the same time as the eruption of Dark Energon from that volcano. I kept getting this feeling of being watched.

"I feel like someone's watching us," I said, walking beside Optimus in a rocky terrain.

"It may very well be true," Optimus noted. "If Unicron is the Earth's core, he will be able to track us wherever we may go."

I shivered. I didn't know much about this Unicron guy, but he sounded way creepy.

"**Any findings yet?" **Ratchet's voice came over the internals.

"**This epicenter is consistent with the others," **Optimus reported. **"It is rich in ore."**

"**Understood," **Ratchet said and the comm was turned off for the moment.

We were about to take a better look around when I heard some cracking. We turned and both of us were shocked to see a face form in the face of the rock wall.

"Do you know me, followers of Primus?" the face asked.

"Unicron, the Chaos Bringer," Optimus said as my door wings twitched slightly.

"Good," Unicron's face said. The rock around the face crumbled as a full body walked out of the rock, made from the rock.

_I don't even want to know how that is possible,_ I thought, finding it more important to know how we were gonna deal with this turn of events.

"Now know me as Unicron, your destroyer!"

As the rock manifestation of the Chaos Bringer spoke, a second one formed. As the first attacked Optimus, who deployed his swords and fought back, the second came after me. I dodged its first attack as I deployed my Ion Blasters, finding that I wished I had swords as well. I turned and blocked an attack with the barrel of one of my weapons and fired with the other. The battle had us all moving and I still didn't stray too far from Optimus, the both of us getting pushed back in the same direction.

_You'd think he would want to split us up first, _I thought to myself as I leapt back from an attack to land next to Optimus.

Surprisingly, Optimus unarmed himself and held his arms out, making sure I was behind him.

"I humbly request your ear, Lord Unicron," Optimus said, causing both Unicron manifestations to pause and me to give him an odd look.

_What the frag is he doing? _I wondered. _It's not like Unicron will actually listen to us._

"And what would a Prime be so compelled to say to me?" Unicron asked, optics moving to me briefly before returning to Optimus.

"I make this appeal not for myself, but for this planet which you constitute," Optimus said. "And the beings that inhabit it. Human kind relies on you. For life, for sustenance. Your resurrection will only result in the destruction of a species which evolved from the seeds of your very greatness."

"So this human kind of which you speak," Unicron said. He pointed a rocky arm at Optimus. "You consider them my progeny?"

"Indeed," Optimus said.

Unicron just stared at the two of us as we hoped he would cease his awakening. But it was too much to hope he would see the light from Optimus's words.

"Parasites! They too shall know my wrathful hand," Unicron said. "Once I am finished with the Primes which stand before me."

I barely had time to be confused by the fact that he said 'Primes' in the plural before he shot some kind of electrical energy from his hands. The energy hit both of us square in the chest and we flew back, tumbling across the ground a little when we landed.

_Ow,_ I thought as I began to get up. I could see Optimus beginning to rise as well. A few sparks of that energy flashed on both our frames, it taking some time to stop having some kind of effect. It rather hurt whenever a spark of the energy appeared again and it kept me from rising fully for a few moments.

"The Dynasty of Primes has grown weak in my absence," Unicron said. "And thus you shall fall." Both manifestations held their hands up again, preparing to strike with the electrical blast again.

"That outcome is inevitable," Optimus said as he activated his Ion Blasters.

"But not today," I added as I aimed and fired at both Unicrons.

Optimus fired as well, clearly agreeing that this was not our day to fall. Our shots hit the manifestations multiple times as we kept firing. When we did stop, we were both on our feet and the manifestations of Unicron fell over backwards before crumbling into dust. I deactivated my weapons as Optimus did as well before we shared a worried look.

Just as I was about to say something, more rock manifestations of Unicron formed until we were surrounded. Optimus and I moved slightly in a circle as the forms were created. Instinctively, I onlined my weapons again as Optimus and I stood back-to-back.

"Yes, Disciples of Primus, on this very day," Unicron's incarnations said at the same time. "For Unicron may be one, but we all are Unicron. Now you Primes shall fall."

"Why does he keep referring to us both as Primes?" I asked Optimus as he armed himself again as well.

"I have suspicions," Optimus said. "But I do not know for certain."

"**Optimus," **Ratchet's voice came through the comm at that point. **"Have you discovered any more signs of Unicron's emergence?"**

"Unicron is power incarnate," Unicron's manifestation said. "And you, the last of the Primes shall perish."

"**I'll take that as a yes," **Ratchet said. **"We are on our way."**

"**Negative," **Optimus said over our internals. **"Unicron cannot be defeated by sheer force. He wants us, Ratchet. This fight must be ours alone."**

The communications was switched off as Optimus engaged his battle mask.

"Follow my lead," Optimus told me.

"Will do," I said, knowing he was more familiar with fighting than I was.

Optimus began moving just as the manifestations began their attack. I followed behind him as we made our way through the canyon, blasting at the rock Unicrons as we went. But for every manifestation we destroyed, two more formed and we were easily outnumbered.

_It's times like these when all I can do is trust that things will turn out right,_ I thought to myself as I blasted another manifestation.

"Amelia! Duck!" Optimus called and I did so just before he shot over my head, hitting a manifestation that had tried to sneak up on me.

I nodded my thanks before quickly shooting a manifestation that was coming at him from his left. Optimus jumped to the next ledge, firing at the rock Unicrons as he did so. I punched an enemy and then shot it before following after Optimus. I landed just on the edge of the ledge and lost my footing. I squeaked and I saw Optimus turn and his optics widened slightly when he saw that I was about to fall. I was just about to regain my balance, even as Optimus moved to help me, when a Unicron manifestation got a hit on me and I was sent flying toward the ground below.

I hit the ground on my back and bounced a little as I rolled as well. I groaned as I lifted myself up a little on my arms. My door wings tried to move a little with my annoyance at being knocked down such a far drop, but it only resulted in a sharp pain flaring through my back struts.

"Ow," I said, it coming out more as a whine. "Ratchet ain't gonna be too happy…" I noted to myself. The mech was never happy when any of us got hurt.

I saw a Unicron manifestation heading right for me and tried to get fully up so I could defend myself. Unfortunately, the effort only resulted in me flinching from the pain in my back. I was only half way into my 'Scrap I'm screwed' thought when Optimus came sliding down the rock face and sliced the attacking Unicron in half.

"Are you alright?" Optimus asked as he held a hand out to me.

I let him help me up quickly before we turned and stood back-to-back, shooting at the rock Unicrons in a sort of tandem.

"Well, I'm still online," I said. "That's a plus. And you're still online, so that's another plus."

"Indeed," Optimus said, shooting down a couple of our enemy.

We fired some more at the manifestations and one got close enough that I had to duck under an attack, even as Optimus saw this and spun with one of his swords, cutting through my attacker. I blinked a moment, but saw one heading to attack Optimus and went to warn him. Unfortunately, the manifestation came faster than my shout of 'Lookout!' and it tackled him. The two went soaring over my still ducked form and I looked wide eyed as they landed.

"Optimus," I said and went to go to help him, but I was cut off.

I leaped back a bit to avoid an attack from my left. Unfortunately, in doing so I also leapt right into the attack range of another manifestation. A well placed hit to my side sent me to the ground, landing on my back.

_Ow, if I keep landing on my back, my door wings will be forever broken, _I thought to myself as I went to get up. A large foot coming down on my chest kept me in place though and I flinched from the pain that ripped through both my back and my chest now.

As the rock monster lifted a weaponized arm to finish me off, I heard the sound of a Ground Bridge activating. I briefly looked over at it before the pressure on my chest increased. My optics closed as I flinched from the sharp increase in pain and I tried to push at the foot on my chest in hopes to offset the balance of my would be killer.

I heard the sounds of blaster fire and the sound of steps that were distinctly different from the steps of the rock Unicrons. After a moment, the weight on my chest lifted and I took a sharp intake of air as I felt some relief at being freed from the restricting hold. I opened my optics to find Ratchet hovering over me.

"Ratchet?" I asked. "What are you doing here?"

"What's it look like I'm doing?" he asked, helping me to my feet.

"Ratchet, I told you to stay at base," Optimus said.

"And you two both almost got offlined!" Ratchet said, releasing his hold on me only after he was sure I wouldn't fall back down.

"Reinforcements will not prevent your destruction, Disciples of Primus," Unicron's manifestations said, a few more forming from the rock to replace the ones destroyed by the bots.

"Optimus, you're Unicron's target," Arcee said as we unconsciously made a circle so that everyone had each other's back. "Maybe you should consider returning to base."

"These manifestations of Unicron can track us anywhere on Earth," Optimus said as he shot down rock monsters as they appeared. "Even the base's shielding will only cloak our position for so long."

"Then fall back and let us take the lead," Bulkhead said. "Just this once."

"Please, listen to reason, Optimus," Ratchet said. "If you don't survive, I fear neither will this planet."

Optimus seemed to think for a moment before taking a step back. "Very well," he said.

"Let's move!" Arcee said.

Arcee in the lead, we began moving through the canyon again. I mumbled some complaints under my breath as I felt the pain in my back flare when I started running after the others. When Arcee jumped up to a ledge, I grimaced, knowing it was gonna be more difficult to follow with my injury. Ratchet had apparently seen that as well, cause he wrapped an arm around my waist before jumping after the others, Optimus right behind us.

"Amelia, will you be able to make it?" Optimus asked in concern.

"I'll be fine," I said as Ratchet released me so we both could move faster. "It's not that bad." I was glad that most of the damage was to my door wings from the fall down the cliff. Unfortunately, part of that damage was in the connections, which meant my whole back suffered for it.

Ratchet shot me a disbelieving look, but didn't say anything as we continued through the canyon as we fought. When we finally reached an open expanse, we all transformed down into vehicle mode and drove as fast as we could. Optimus and Bulkhead drove straight through the legs of some rock Unicrons, causing them to collapse as we drove by. We came to a halt and transformed back into our bipedal modes as we watched a manifestation larger than even the base itself form.

Bee whirled something.

"No, not Unicron himself," Optimus said, walking forward slightly. "But another of his manifestations."

"It's huge…" I said, wide-opticed and feeling a little on the scared side. That thing could easily just step over the silo our base was in.

"If we can't beat Unicron," Ratchet said.

"And we can't outrun him," Bulkhead added. "What exactly are we supposed to do?"

"All we can do," Optimus said. "Neutralize his vessels as they appear. Until we find a way to destroy him."

"Without destroying the Earth," I finished for him and he nodded.

"Ratchet, take Amelia back to base," Optimus said. "And start looking for a way to defeat Unicron."

Ratchet nodded and Optimus led the others in an attack on Unicron's manifestation. As they distracted the giant-sized titan, Ratchet called base for a Ground Bridge and it was merely moments before he and I dashed through.

"What about the others?" Jack asked as Raf powered down the Ground Bridge.

"Keeping it busy," Ratchet said. He walked over to the computer and kept a comm channel open to the others. "Come here," he said, motioning toward me.

I obeyed, though his commanding tone almost made me unsure.

"You can read Cybertronian, right?" he asked.

"Kinda," I said. "It takes me a bit because I have to translate it, but I can."

"Will you read over this while I fix your door wings?" Ratchet asked, motioning to some information on the computer. "Look for any clues on how to stop Unicron."

"Right," I said and began reading, trying not to fidget as he worked to fix the damage I had sustained.

When I began reading, I found that it was the prophecy that he was having me read. I could figure out what parts referred to, but nothing that really told us anything we didn't already know. There was a little more than Optimus had read out loud, but I couldn't decipher it. I tried and tried again, but it was undecipherable to me. It was written in a slightly different form of Cybertronian than I was used to.

"Not anything that can help," I noted just as Ratchet finished up.

Ratchet sighed as he moved back. "Well, repairs are done," he said.

I moved out of the way as he began monitoring the others.

"**Ratchet," **Arcee's voice called through the comm.

"What is it? What happened?" Ratchet asked.

"**I happened," **a new voice entered the conversation and Ratchet narrowed his optics.

"**Megatron?" **Bulkhead said, his voice questioning and surprised.

"King Con's there too?" Miko asked.

"He has aligned himself with Unicron," Ratchet said.

"**Don't be so sure," **Arcee said. **"Megatron just saved Optimus's tail pipe."**

I found that when I tried to follow the conversation, I just got more confused. Megatron was offering an alliance to defeat Unicron, which didn't make sense seeing as how he and Optimus were more or less mortal enemies. Apparently he knew he couldn't defeat by himself, because he needed the power of a Prime, but he was also the only one who could lead us to Unicron's spark to destroy him. Ratchet didn't like it, because it meant siding with an evil and he was concerned about making a blind jump into a sentient being.

It was only a few more minutes before the other Autobots were here, Megatron apparently distracting Unicron.

"I know that desperate times call for desperate measures," Ratchet said, clearly irritated. "But bringing Megatron here?"

"How could you even think to let him near the children after what he did to Raf?" June demanded.

"He will be closely monitored," Optimus said. "And only allowed to linger long enough to send us on our journey. Not one moment more."

"What's gonna stop the Con from calling in an air strike if he knows where you live?" Fowler asked.

"By Ground Bridging Megatron here, he will be unable to get a fix on our coordinates," Optimus said.

"Optimus what will happen to you when all your Matrix energy's released?" Jack asked, looking concerned for the big guy.

Optimus paused. "The power of the Matrix has not been used in this particular manor before," he said, walking toward the Bridge and he stopped with his back to us.

"But you have some idea, right?" I asked, also concerned for our leader and friend.

Optimus was silent for a moment before he spoke. "Autobots," he said, turning slightly to look at us all. "If human kind is to be saved, I have no choice but to proceed. But you do."

There was silence for a moment as everyone took in his words.

"I say let's kick Unicron's sorry aft," I said, shifting a little on my feet as I slammed a fist into my palm.

The others all gave me a look, showing their surprise at my clear eagerness to join the battle. I couldn't blame them, I hadn't shown a whole lot of enthusiasm for any kind of fighting in the past, beyond training matches anyway.

"What? It is my planet we're talking about here," I said. "Don't I have a right to be protective of it?"

They couldn't argue with that logic and though I knew some worried with it being my first high risk mission, no one forbade me from joining the fight.

"I don't know about human kind," Bulkhead said. "But I'll do it. For Miko."

"For Jack," Arcee agreed.

Bee whirled something, that was easily understood as "For Raf."

"Alright, prepare to welcome in a guest," Optimus said once that was decided.

"Come on you guys, go into the other room," Ratchet said and picked Miko up when she refused to move.

I ignored Miko's complaining as I moved to stand next to Optimus. "Are you sure this is the only way?" I asked.

"It was the combined power of the Primes that defeated Unicron the first time around," Optimus said.

"So," I said. "It's the best chance we have then."

"Indeed," Optimus said.

I sighed. "I almost wish things were simple again," I said.

Optimus placed a hand briefly on my shoulder as he commed Megatron while ratchet activated the Ground Bridge.

A few moments later Megatron walked through the Ground Bridge and my door wings twitched a little with my apprehension.

"So this is where the magic happens," Megatron said once the Ground Bridge closed down. "Quaint."

Raf ran out, glaring at Megatron. I didn't know what it was he was going to try, though it probably was somewhere along the lines of ripping some wires out of Megatron's foot, but he stopped when Jack grabbed him by the shoulder. The other humans had followed too, all clearly trying to stop Raf, though I'm sure Miko mostly wanted to get a closer look at our normal enemy. Arcee jumped in between the large Con and the humans, guns both pointing at the former.

"Ah, you look a lot better than the last time we met, little one," Megatron said. "Humans. Resilient."

"Come on Raf," Jack said, pulling Raf back toward the hall, his mom coming up to help bring Raf away. "He isn't worth it."

"And you," he said, causing Jack to pause. "I never forget a face, even that of a human."

Jack merely looked at him briefly before turning and leaving again with the others.

"You double cross anyone and mine will be the face you never forget!" Miko said angrily before Fowler dragged her.

_That's Miko, always the feisty and reckless one,_ I thought with a mental sigh.

"Ratchet, obtain the destination coordinates from our guest," Optimus said.

I stood by uneasily as Ratchet and Megatron both moved to the Ground Bridge controls. Arcee, Bulkhead and Bumblebee all kept their blasters pointed at the enormous silver mech. Megatron was even slightly taller than Optimus, which made him rather intimidating. I tried not to think about it as I glanced over at Optimus, who was kneeled and talking to Jack at the moment. Then I glanced back at the others and our…guest, and gave another mental sigh.

The Ground Bridge activated just as Optimus rejoined us and Megatron moved closer to the Ground Bridge, the rest of us following cautiously. He looked down at Arcee and she told him to go first, which he surprising did easily. Arcee went next, followed by Bulkhead and Bee. I took a last look at our human friends and Ratchet before following, Optimus coming a moment after me.

When we stepped out on the other side, I shuddered a little as Optimus moved to take the lead just behind Megatron.

"How long until Unicron knows we're here?" Arcee asked.

"Make no mistake," Megatron said. "He already does."

_It'd be kinda hard to miss the fact that people are walking around on your veins,_ I thought as we walked on, but I didn't voice it out loud. I wasn't even sure if it was his veins we were on, but I guessed it was at least the Cybertronian equivalent. Either way, we eventually stepped off them and into some sort of corridor.

_Except corridor wouldn't be the right word, would it?_ I thought to myself.

We paused at one moment when Megatron looked like he was getting a really bad and painful headache. When he straightened back up, he shared a look with Optimus before stating that Unicron was getting stronger. Arcee voiced her concerns that this could be a trap and even Optimus didn't know if it was or not. My door wings twitched a little with my apprehension in the whole situation, even as we moved out into a more open expanse, crossing more of those vein-like structures over a large chasm.

Megatron was in the lead with me and Optimus not far behind. Arcee, Bulkhead and Bee took up the rear. I stumbled a little and put a hand to my head as I felt a hand reach out and steady me. I looked up to see Optimus looking at me in concern.

"Are you alright?" he asked as Megatron paused briefly to see why we had stopped.

"I'm fine," I said. "Just a little light headed."

"The Dark Energon," Optimus said and he looked back. I wasn't the only one being affected as Bulkhead had stumbled too.

"I'll be ok," I said. "As long as I don't fall, anyway." I gave a wary look over the edge.

"Stay close," Optimus advised as he released my shoulder.

I nodded as we began walking again. We only made it half-way across before we stopped again, hearing a noise. It sounded almost like growling at first and then when I listened closer it sounded like some kind of chattering. Megatron looked back at the rest of us as we looked around.

"He's preparing to expel us," he said matter-of-factly.

I looked to my left as I caught something in the corner of my optic and blinked at the swarm of…things heading our way. I activated my Ion Blasters as everyone activated their own weapons.

"What are those things?" Bulkhead asked as we started firing at the things.

"As we are in Unicron's body," Optimus said. "It stands to reason that they are some sort of anti-body."

"So they're gonna try to destroy us like we're some sort of disease or something?" I asked, ducking under one as it flew just over my head.

"Did you expect less?" Megatron asked, shooting at the anti-bodies as well.

"Not at all," I said. "Just making sure I understood right before I blast them." _Come on, Amelia, this is no time to be a pacifist, _I thought to myself.

I fired and then ducked as another flew over my head, even as Optimus sliced the thing with his sword. I reached out and grabbed ahold of an anti-body by the tentacles that trailed behind it. I fired a shot at it as it fired rapidly, so it wouldn't shoot the others.

"What are you doing?" Bulkhead asked, looking over at me as I kneeled down and opened a panel.

"Jazz taught me a trick before they left on their mission," I explained as I worked. "I'm seeing if it will work here."

I barely flinched as Megatron, surprisingly, kicked away an anti-body that was coming straight for me.

"Hurry it up then, we don't have all day," Megatron growled.

"Impatient," I mumbled just loud enough to be heard.

I messed around a bit more before closing the panel. I stood up straight and tossed the offline anti-body into a group of the others. The tampered with anti-body exploded, taking out quite a few.

"Well what do you know? It worked," I said, proud of myself.

"Jazz taught you that?" Arcee asked, looking impressed.

"Well, kinda," I said, firing at the anti-bodies with my Ion Blasters again. "A bit different albeit, but same concept."

"Leave it to Jazz," Bulkhead said. He knocked an anti-body out of the air with his wrecking ball. "To teach a femme how to turn something into a bomb."

I punched an anti-body, breaking through its shell and leaving it to fall down the chasm, offline. We fought the anti-bodies off for several minutes. Bulkhead nearly fell down the chasm, but Bee caught him and was able to hold him for a while and Optimus pulled him back up before we started running across to where we needed to go again. We were almost to the next area when a shot came from my left and hit me, sending me flying off.

"Amelia!" I heard Optimus call out.

I spotted an anti-body that was about to fly over me and reached out, grabbing ahold of it on both sides. It wobbled a little from the added weight, but remained airborne as it struggled to shake me while others shot at me.

"Whoa," I said, lifting my legs up to avoid getting them shot. I glared up at the anti-body I had grabbed onto. "Alright you."

I growled slightly, digging my fingers into a seam to get a better grip. The anti-body whined some as I was apparently hurting it. I tried to pull a little on one side, but instead of turning that way as I had hoped, it pulled a flip.

"Ahh!" I screamed slightly, though not loud enough that the others would've heard me if it weren't for the echo.

"Hang on!" I heard Arcee call as I lifted my feet and kicked away a couple anti-bodies that were shooting at me. I caught sight of her jumping onto one's back.

"Not like I have much choice," I muttered, looking below me into the chasm. I felt my head spin slightly and I closed my optics briefly. "Ok, don't look down."

I kicked at some more anti-bodies and somehow managed to dodge some more shots and still maintain a hold on the anti-body I was hanging from.

"This is one of those times where the ability to fly would come in handy," I noted, kicking another anti-body away.

"Gotcha," I heard Arcee say as she made it to my anti-body.

"Hey, Arcee," I said. "Nice day to fly, ain't it."

Arcee smirked a little. "Hold on," she said just before she leapt from the anti-body she was riding and onto the top of mine.

"Whoa," I said as the thing wobbled and stuttered a little. I lost grip with one hand, but quickly put it back in place.

"Come on," I heard Arcee say from up top. I heard her punch into the things head and moments later she had control over our direction.

She flew us over the bridge, just in front of the others. She told me to jump just as we went over the ground and I dropped to the ground at the same time she flipped off the top, leaving the anti-body to crash into the wall.

"Ok, now _that_ was scary," I said, standing up straight as Arcee landed.

"Let's move," Megatron said. "We're almost there."

We didn't have to be told twice and Arcee and I turned and headed into the next area, the others following quickly behind. The next area we came to was more open and we had more room to work with. There also wasn't a danger of falling down a chasm in this area, which I was thankful for. We stopped again, firing at the anti-bodies as they followed us down the corridor, or whatever the correct term would be. I took note when Megatron doubled over, holding his head as if he was having a battle in his head.

_He probably is,_ I thought to myself, remembering that he did have Dark Energon in his systems.

He reached out toward Optimus and I was about to intervene, but instead of attacking him as I had thought, he pushed him down as he shot an incoming anti-body.

"Unicron's spark lies just beyond," Megatron said, turning and motioning to what appeared to me to be a large door of some kind.

"How do we get inside?" Optimus asked as he moved to protect Megatron from the anti-bodies, seeing as how the silver mech had ceased paying attention to them.

"By fooling Unicron's defenses into believing we aren't a threat," Megatron said and a purple glow issued from his chest.

He turned and stood nearly right up against the door-thing. Once the door was open, he walked through, not bothering to check if anyone was following him.

"Autobots," Optimus said. "I will leave you to keep our attackers at bay as long as you can."

Just as he was about to turn to leave, an anti-body flew right into me, literally, taking me through the door. Optimus followed, the door closing behind him even as he pried the anti-body off me and tore it in half.

"Are you alright?" Optimus asked as he held a hand out to help me up.

"Fine," I said. "I still function anyway." I looked at the closed door before looking back at my leader. "Looks like I'm coming with."

Optimus looked at the door as well. "It appears so," he said.

He started down the tunnel and I followed behind, trying my best to keep up with his fast pace. When we caught up to Megatron, he was standing before a large ball of purple light. My door wings stiffened a little as I shuddered. It definitely did not feel inviting in here the least bit.

"Optimus! Swiftly!" Megatron said, motioning with his head toward the ball of purple light, which I guessed was Unicron's spark.

Optimus moved forward, reaching up to his chest and lightly grabbing the windows. Before he could do anything, however, three streams of light came from the large spark before us, one hitting each of us in turn. It felt like I was suddenly hit by a giant, high-speed train and I fell to my knees, grabbing my head when it felt like I was gonna lose consciousness. I fought to remain cognitive, trying to block out the pain filling all of my receptors. The last thing I was aware of before losing the battle was Megatron declaring that he was commanded by no one.

**~A Few Minutes Later, Normal PoV~**

Megatron regained consciousness after getting hit by the blast from the Matrix and held his head as he stood up. He took a look around and saw that the femme he wasn't entirely familiar with was still unconscious, laying in stasis not far from his long-time foe. But said long-time foe was coming to. The ball of light that was Unicron's spark was gone, as was the constant throbbing in his processor.

"Hmph, teamwork," he said smoothly to himself. He deployed his sword and walked toward his adversary, intending to end his existence while he was down.

Optimus looked up, then around at their surroundings and then said something that shocked him, and would've shocked the femme were she conscious.

"Where are we Megatronus?" the mech asked. His gaze flickered to the unconscious femme. "And who is she?"

Megatron thought briefly, letting his gaze travel to the femme as he retracted his sword, the mech before him only glancing at the weapon as it disappeared. He could use the femme's presence and current state to an advantage. He held out a hand to help the mech up.

"Don't you remember old friend?" he asked. "She is a friend, Orion."

"But then, why is she in stasis?" Orion Pax asked.

Before Megatron could answer, the door was broken down and the other three Autobots came in.

"Optimus! Are you ok?" Bulkhead asked.

"Why did he call me that?" Orion asked.

"What did you do to him?" Arcee said, taking quick note of the in-stasis-Amelia.

"Who are they?" Orion asked.

Megatron looked back as a Ground Bridge opened up and he received a comm from Soundwave. He turned back slightly to look at Orion.

"Our mortal enemies," he said. "We're outnumbered, go! I'll cover you!"

Not seeing a reason to disbelieve his friend, Orion quickly scooped up the white and purple femme before heading toward the light of the Ground Bridge. He paused a moment and looked to the strange bots. The yellow looked after him with what appeared to be pleading optics. More than a little confused, Orion continued through the Ground Bridge.

On the other side, he waited for Megatronus to step through, and sure enough, he did. A red mech was also in the room, along with a purple one with no face, a screen taking up the area instead. Both looked surprised to see Orion standing there, with an unconscious femme at that.

"Don't just stand there Knock Out," Megatron said as he walked to Orion's side. "Can't you see this femme needs medical attention?"

"Oh, right," Knock Out said. "I'll get on that." He moved forward and took the femme from Orion's, though he thought it was Optimus, hands.

Megatron moved with him to the door as Orion watched from his place. He leaned down and said in a voice too low for the mech to hear, "I will explain later, but I want her energy signature changed to avoid being tracked by the Autobots. And also," he glanced back at the red and blue mech, "make sure to disable her vocals and internal communications. It would do us no good to have her ruin my plans, by telling Orion who he really is."

"Oh, I get it," Knock Out said just as quietly. "Will do, Lord Megatron."

Megatron watched the medic go with a slight scowl. He would've rather not have to deal with the possibility of the femme telling Orion he was not Orion Pax any longer. However, he also knew if he had the femme offlined, then Orion's noble nature would take charge and he wouldn't cooperate.

**~Autobot Base, Normal PoV~**

Ratchet growled and slammed a fist down on his work table. It had been two hours since Arcee, Bulkhead and Bumblebee had returned from the Earth's core and still they couldn't get a fix on Amelia's energy signature. It had been their best hope of tracking the Decepticons, who not only had Amelia, but their apparent memory-lacking leader as well.

"Frag it all," Ratchet grumbled. He placed a hand over his aching spark. "Why did she have to insist on going to help?" He cringed at another twinge his spark gave. "She could be offline for all we know…"

He sighed, looking over at the berth the femme usually occupied during her visits to the med bay. He walked over and sat down, staring at his hands.

_I never even told her how I feel yet,_ Ratchet thought. _Now not only is our leader missing and lacking his memories, but she is gone too. _ He looked around at his empty med bay sadly.

The door opened and Arcee walked in and the small, blue femme walked over.

"Ratchet," she said. "Sitting in here and sulking isn't going to bring either of them back."

Ratchet didn't reply. He didn't have to for the femme to know how spark broken he was at that moment.

"Ratchet, we need you to help us search for them," Arcee said. "We'll find them, doc. Both of them."

"How do you know?" Ratchet asked, his voice betraying his brokenness.

"Because we have the most stubborn and dedicated mech I know as our medic," Arcee said. "And I know if any of us can find them, it's him."

Ratchet looked up at Arcee, his expression changing to one of determination. "Then let's get to it," he said.


	23. Meanwhile

**A/N: **Oh look! Another update! *grin* As I said, I am currently focusing on this story alone, so updates will come a little faster for this one than usual until I reach the chapter I am trying to reach, at which time I will be back to my usual updating schedule.

On another note, as I said last chapter, this chapter takes us away from Amelia and the others for now. This chapter takes place while the whole shebang with Unicron is going on. Next chapter is the same, away from Amelia and the others and same time frame. The point at which next chapter ends it will be at the same timeframe as my last chapter ended. Just so you have a bit of a reference.

Another note, I figured I should probably give you all a key to tell you what some things mean, so the following is the key for this story:

"English speech"

"_Cybertronian"_

"**Internal Communications"**

_:Spark bond communication:_

**Vorn -** a hundred years

**Orn - **a year

**Jour –** a month

**Mega-Cycle – **a week

**Solar-Cycle – **a day

**Breem – **an hour

**Klik – **a minute

**Nano-klik – **a second

Much of the rest is self-explanatory or well-known to us Transfans. If you ever a question about something, you can always ask. ^.^

**Author's Replies:**

**ilikeanimeandmanga: **Hehe. Well, here's ya an update. :) And this time it was 'soon'.

**Shunner68: **To each their own.

**pokemonjkl: **Indeed it does not. And for once, I did update 'soon'. :D

**Unknown: **Hmm, that is true that Starscream hasn't been in the story since he left the Cons. But they will cross paths again at some point, but that information is need-to-know-classified.

**CatGirlFireflare: **Glad you like it! :D

**Luna Prime- Awesomeness: **Sorry! But honestly, it's nice focusing on a single story again after a long time of writing 4 different stories at once. I will get back to the others soon though, I promise. Glad I got you in suspense. :) That means I'm doing a pretty good job, I think. *has recently gained a huge confidence boost when it comes to her writing*

**Anduren: **Hmm, perhaps. You'll have to wait to find out. ;) Gad you have liked this story so far.

**GalaxyWarrioress1234: **Hehe, well, you'll have to wait just a little bit longer to find out. But you will, don't worry. ;) Glad you have liked it.

**Sailor Shinzo: ***updated 'soon'* :D Glad you are enjoying my story.

**Jaacs McHenry: **Glad you enjoyed it. *grins* The next chapter is here now, so you can read it. :D

**Princess Thil Galel: **Indeed. They are going through much right now. And yes, I wouldn't want to be Knock Out when Ratchet learns of this either. ;p

Alright, well anyway. Here is the next chapter. It is not as long as my last one, but when a muse says that's the end of the chapter, that's the end. I at least got the required(required in my mind) of at least 2,500 words.

Hope you all enjoy!

**Chapter 23: Meanwhile…**

**~Somewhere in Outer Space, Normal PoV~**

Ironhide was usually a very patient mech. One had to be patient when you were guardian to a rambunctious Bumblebee, and before that, the twins. While Bumblebee had grown up, leaving his more annoying antics behind, the twins were still rambunctious and required patience merely to put up with them at times.

Surprisingly, it wasn't the twins that were causing his patience to wane. Instead, it was the time it was taking to reach the coordinates where he knew his sparkmate was, along with her sister and Primus only knew who all was still with them. He knew Prowl had left the Ark before he and Jazz had, in an effort to find them. He had wanted to go with Prowl, but he had been needed on the planet they had been making a stop on at the time.

"'Hide if ya glare any harder at da view screen it may jus' catch fire," Jazz noted.

Ironhide sighed and wiped a hand over his faceplate. "Jazz, I hardly think it will catch on fire by my glaring," he said.

"'Course not," Jazz said, raising an optic ridge. "It's a human sayin'. I was jus' sayin' dat ya shoul' calm down. We'll get there."

"Right," Ironhide said, shifting on his feet in his anxiety. He found it hard to be patient when his Chromia was in danger, along with bots he hadn't seen since they were younglings.

"Can't say ya blame him for being grouchy," Sunstreaker told Jazz. "I'm getting anxious with this waiting myself. I'm ready to kick some Cons into oblivion." He punched a fist into his palm, showing just what he thought should be done to the Cons who had attacked the femmes and the others.

Jazz sighed. He was the only one not getting worked up ahead of time. They still had a day's journey to reach the coordinates found in the escape pod and he was anxious too, he just wasn't letting it get to him. It would do him no good to waste his energy being all frustrated now.

"We'll get there in time," Jazz said. "Ah know it. Dat's why Ah'm not worried. We won' le' an'thin' happen ta our friends."

"Jazz is right guys," Sideswipe piped up from his station. "We'll be there this time tomorrow. The femmes are tough, I'm certain they're fine."

Jazz nodded and looked down at the datapad he was reading. It was full of information about Earth, the planet they would be returning to after fetching the femmes. He wondered what those they had left behind were up to. Was Amelia still trying to understand why she had been brought to them? Did Ratchet ever mech up and confess his feelings? Did Amelia ever get Optimus to laugh?

Jazz almost chuckled at his last thought. He recalled the time when the small femme had told him about her first days with them when she had tried so hard to make Optimus laugh and managed to get a smile out of him. She had told him it was her self-made mission to get him to laugh, to get underneath that hard exterior the Prime held and get him to enjoy himself, if only once. That femme was always full of good intentions.

"What do you think the others are up to?" Ironhide asked, sitting down next to Jazz at the small table on the bridge of their ship, unaware of the silver mech's thoughts.

"Back on Earth?" Jazz asked and grinned at Ironhide's nod. "Da doc bot is probably fussing over 'Melia's health while avoiding da subject of his love."

Ironhide chuckled. "Yeah and I bet Bulkhead's still going to monster truck rallies with Miko," he said.

"And Bumblebee's playing those games with Raf," Jazz said.

"Arcee's probably going on routine scouting missions with Jack and getting in trouble," Ironhide said, grinning a little. Talking about the rest of the team helped keep his processor off of the fact they weren't at their destination yet. "And Optimus is busy worrying over what Megatron could be up to next."

"Yeah," Jazz laughed. "While 'Melia tries ta get him ta laugh. When she isn' readin' anyway."

Ironhide chuckled. "That femme is always trying to keep everyone's spirits up," he said.

Jazz grinned. "Dat she is," he agreed.

"You guys talkin' about the others?" Sideswipe asked, leaning back in his seat and looking over his shoulder. "I bet they're lost without us."

"Don't be arrogant, youngling," Ironhide said gruffly, looking over at the red mech. "Everybot can function just fine without you poking your nose into their business."

"Are you sure about that?" Sunstreaker asked. "After all, the doc bot certainly seems to need help winning the spark of a certain femme."

A clang was heard when Jazz whacked the yellow twin upside the head. "Ya weren't much help there, mech," he said. "Ya two had a habit of makin' da femme uncomfortable as much as amuse her."

"Wha?" Sideswipe asked. "We'd never do that."

"Ya never did pay much attention ta da subtle signs of body language," Jazz said, shaking his head.

"Huh?" Sideswipe tilted his head in confusion.

"Just keep track of our position," Ironhide told the twin. "And let us know when we're ten kliks out."

"I will," Sideswipe said. And he would, because he knew how serious their mission was.

Ironhide stood and headed toward the door.

"Where ya headed?" Jazz asked.

"The training room," Ironhide said.

"I'm coming too," Sunstreaker said, standing to his pedes and following Ironhide out of the bridge.

Jazz tapped his fingers on the table before looking over to the only other mech remaining on the bridge.

"So ya know a way ta pass da time?" Jazz asked.

"Sure," Sideswipe said. "We can play that game that humans play, what's it called? Truth or dare. Or some other Earth game, see how good we are at them."

"Sounds fun," Jazz said.

**~Some Uncharted Planet, Normal PoV~**

Dust blew in the wind created by the updrafts blowing in from the south. Visibility was close to zero and the air was hot and dry. Nothing lived out in these deserts, or at least, no one thought anything lived. The desert had been barren of life for so long, none of the natives ever bothered to venture into it anymore. To them it was the Barren Land, the land where no life could exist, where there was no hope for survival. They were a peaceful race and oblivious to any happenings that did not spread across their system of news.

Perhaps that was why none of them had noticed the ship that had crash landed a couple Earth weeks ago, or the beings that had emerged from it. They didn't notice the mechs and femmes that used the crashed ship as a base while they searched for sources of energy while on the lookout for either foe or friend. They also hadn't noticed when other, crueler mechs had flown over in search of the bots that occupied the vessel, but had given up the search after a few days.

"_Is it clear?"_ a fairly young mech asked. He had blue and white armor along with door wings.

"_Shh,"_ the elder mech said, peering around from their hiding spot. So far they hadn't seen any Decepticons for cycles, but you could never be too careful.

"_Clear,"_ the elder of the two finally said.

The younger gave a sigh of relief. He was getting tired of waiting to make the final dash back to the Axalon, the ship which they had been traveling in. The two mechs bent and picked up the few Energon cubes they had been able to procure before dashing out into the open. It was merely moments before they entered their fallen craft and the docking bay doors closed.

"_Prowl! Bluestreak!"_ a blue femme greeted the two mech as they sat their findings down. _"I see the Energon scouting went well."_

"_It will hardly be enough,"_ the elder mech said. _"This is hardly enough to support us all for a jour, given no one gets harmed. Worst case scenario, we last a mega-cycle without more."_

"_Don't be so negative, Prowl,"_ the younger mech said. _"We did send a distress signal."_

"_Yes,"_ Prowl said. _"In an escape pod, that we have no way of knowing if it reached anyone."_

"_Boys,"_ the femme said, hand on her hip. She looked at Prowl. _"Prowl, you could stand to be a little more positive."_

"_I am merely being realistic, Chromia,"_ Prowl said in way of explanation.

"_Your realistic can be depressing,"_ a new voice said.

The three bots looked up to see a red femme walking over.

"_Elita!"_ Bluestreak said. _"We found some Energon!"_

Elita smiled at the young mech, who was barely out of his youngling stage. _"Good work," _she said. _"Thanks to you and Prowl we have more time. I'm sure help will reach us soon enough."_

"_You really think they're gonna get here soon?" _Bluestreak asked.

"_Don't worry, I'm sure my message reached _someone_,"_ Chromia said.

"_Let us hope, they are someone we wish to be found by,"_ Prowl said.

"_Hmm,"_ Elita acknowledged the fact that Prowl could be right. _"We'll stay prepared for the worst, but that doesn't mean we can't hope for the best."_

The stoic mech finally conceded the point before he left to another part of the ship.

"_Blue, why don't you go see if Springer and Flare-up need some help with the power converters,"_ Elita suggested.

"_Sure!"_ Bluestreak said, happy to do something to help.

The femmes watched as the young mech nearly ran out of the docking bay. Chromia chuckled as they themselves began to walk further into the Axalon's interior.

"_He's certainly energetic,"_ Chromia said. _"I do worry about him though, knowing what happened to his home city before we even found him. He was barely out of his sparkling stage."_

"_Bluestreak will be fine,"_ Elita said. _"He's made it this far. That's more than some can say."_

"_Yeah,"_ Chromia agreed. _"But that doesn't mean I don't worry. I worry about all the younglings." _She paused as she felt a pulse of something in her long dormant bond. She blinked at the feelings of impatience coming along from her long missed partner.

Elita stopped a step ahead of her sister and turned to look at her in concern. _"Chromia? Is something wrong?" _she asked.

Chromia blinked, the feeling going away. _"No, I'm fine,"_ she said. _"I just…thought I felt Ironhide there for a nano-second." _She grinned slightly. _"He's impatient about something."_

Elita grinned a little. _"Probably the twins driving him up the wall," _she said. Then her expression grew more serious. _"If you felt him, he's fairly close by. Keep a tab on that. If you can, contact him. I don't know how much longer we'll last here by ourselves."_

"_You don't have to tell me twice,"_ Chromia said seriously.

"_If we're lucky, he's headed here, having received the message you sent out,"_ Elita said.

"'_Lita! 'Lita!"_ a small voice called, having both femmes look up to the source.

The source was the youngest of the younglings, a young femme who was just getting out of her sparkling stage. The femme had mostly purple armor with yellow accents, blue optics and a pair of wings stuck out from her back showing that she was a flyer. She had been found in the Well of AllSparks very shortly before they had left Cybertron and had been dubbed Lunarfire, after her coloring and her bright spirit.

"'_Lita! Mia! Guess what I learned to do!"_ Lunarfire exclaimed, running up to the femmes in clear excitement.

"_What is it, sweetspark?"_ Elita asked, kneeling down so that she was less of an intimidating height to the youngling. Not that Lunarfire ever showed signs of being intimidated, it was just natural for her to lower to the level of the younger ones until they were older.

"_Watch!"_ Lunarfire said.

As the femmes watched, the small youngling closed her optics in concentration. At first nothing happened, but after a couple kliks, the youngling rose a couple inches off the ground before tentatively opening her optics again. The older femmes smiled a little when her face lit up in joy.

"_See? I can hover a little bit! Whoa!"_ Lunarfire said, but lost her balance when she held her servos over her head.

"_Easy there,"_ Elita said, reaching out and catching the youngling before she hit the ground. She set the small femme back on her feet.

"_Oh!"_ Lunarfire said in frustration. _"That always happens!"_

Chromia chuckled as she knelt down. She placed a hand on Lunarfire's helm affectionately. _"Give it time, little one," _she said. _"Your wings are still growing. You won't be able to fly until you are much bigger."_

"_Aw," _Lunarfire whined. _"But I wanna fly now!"_

"_You can't rush things, 'Fire," _Elita told the femmeling. _"But we are proud of you."_

Lunarfire smiled at the praise before reaching up and giving both of her elders a tight hug.

_:Chromia?: _

Chromia paused, standing up straight abruptly as the femmeling hugged her sister. _:Ironhide?: _she sent along her bond with the mech, slightly confused, yet happy beyond measure to hear his voice again.

_:It's me,: _Ironhide said. _:We're about ten kliks from the coordinates we found in an escape pod. You still there?:_

"_Chromia? What is it?" _Elita asked her sister, a little startled by her sister's sudden movement.

"_Our rescue," _Chromia told her sister. She switched back to her bond. _:Close to. We crash-landed on the nearby planet in a vast desert. Haven't seen the locals, but we're pretty sure there are some indigenous life. We've been stranded for a few mega-cycles.:_

_:Well, not for much longer, my spark,: _Ironhide said. _:I'll see you on the surface.:_

"_Does that mean we can leave this place?" _Lunarfire asked.

Elita smiled down at the little one. _"Yes, 'Fire," _ she said. _"We will be able to leave."_

"_Yay!" _Lunarfire cheered. _"I'll go pack my things!"_

The femmeling dashed off, passing Mirage and Moonracer as she rushed to her quarters. The two bots turned and watched the youngling disappear before turning to the femmes.

"_What's got her so excited?" _Mirage asked.

"_Help has arrived," _Chromia said, crossing her arms. _"And you know how much she hates all this sand."_

Moonracer chuckled. _"Don't blame her," _she said. _"It gets everywhere. And is a pain to clean off."_

"_Can't argue with that," _Chromia said. _"Speaking of which, I'm gonna be in the wash racks."_

Mirage raised an optic ridge as the blue femme disappeared. He merely sent a questioning look at Elita before getting an answer to his unspoken question.

"_Ironhide's one of the Bots coming," _Elita explained.

Moonracer giggled. _"So, she's going to get all prettied up for her special mech," _she said, an amused sparkle shining in her optics.

The two femmes shared knowing and amused looks as Mirage just decided that he would never understand femmes. One moment, they don't care about a little dirt, but the next, they want to spotless. He would never understand the back-and-forths of the opposite gender.


	24. Tantallia

**A/N: **I beat my record again! This chapter is 6,643 words long! I love it. I love being able to give you guys long chapters! *grin* I think this makes up for the last chapter being fairly short and this one taking so long to get posted even with focusing on this story. I hope you enjoy it!

**Author's Replies:**

**ilikeanimeandmanga: **Well here it is! Glad you like it.

**KayleeChiara: **Of course! And I enjoyed writing this chapter too! Though it was frustrating how long it took, but I have a good excuse this time! Hope you like it as much as you've liked the rest of the story. :D

**GalaxyWarrioress1234: **Yes he is. Hehe. Thanks!

**Princess Thil Galel: **Lunarfire is indeed cute. :) That it does my friend, that it does.

**Jaacs McHenry: ***grins* I am glad you like it. Here's more to read. :)

**Jazz-Transformers: **I am glad you have liked my story so far and I hope you continue to like it.

**CatGirlFireflare: **Huzzah! Indeed. Hehe.

**Luna Prime- Awesomeness: **I'm glad I was able to make your day/night. :) I'm sure many were wondering. I had been planning this since they left, though. :) Glad you like it.

**Mercedes Wolfcry: **Thank-you.

**prowl fan1011: **Glad to amaze you. :) Unfortunately(or not), I will not be skipping any of the story(it'd be pretty confusing to my readers and leave out important details). However, the way I do the portion will be different than what it is in the show by enough that it won't spoil it, I promise. If you really don't want any spoiler whatsoever, my suggestion would be to skip the next three chapters(not recommended as you will miss a lot), or wait until after you watch them(this is what I would do in your place). I believe you can find them on youtube. I watched Operation Bumblebee part 1 on youtube when I missed it last week.

**A/N 2: **As another note, I want to say something about something in this chapter. First of all, anything Transformers related does not belong to me. Second off, and this is most important, the alien species in this chapter is completely my own design. This is why I took so long(that and I have War for Cybertron AND an Xbox on which to play it on now) to get this chapter done-I had to invent an entire species along with their culture. I would ask that you please not use the Tantallian race without asking me first and giving me credit. I do plan on using these guys in my book series after all. Though not till the second book, but still.

I do give some credit to Sci-Fifan95, though. If it weren't for him, this idea of mine would've been passed over and I would still likely be stuck and/or this might not be the amazingly long chapter it is. :) So thank him for helping me get unstuck when I was stuck! *grin*

Now that I have gotten that out of the way. Enjoy the chapter!

**Chapter 24: Tantallia**

**~Aboard the Safeguard, Normal PoV~**

Ironhide watched through the Safeguard's view screen as the planet became larger as they approached. They knew exactly where on the planet they were headed, which meant that he didn't have to wait longer than he had to before they could pick up the bots stranded here. He was itching to see Chromia again and he was glad that she was alright.

"How many of them do you think are still functioning? And still with the group?" Sideswipe asked.

"We won't know until we reach them," Sunstreaker said. He was slightly disappointed there were no Cons to scrap, but he was glad the bots were ok.

"Ah can' wait ta see dem all 'gain," Jazz said.

"Alright, guys," Ironhide said. "Enough chatter. Bring us down Sideswipe."

"Yes sir," Sideswipe said, happy to do so.

Sideswipe carefully brought the Safeguard closer to the ground a few kliks away from the crashed Axalon. With Sideswipe piloting and Sunstreaker and Jazz operating the other necessary functions to make a smooth landing, they were able to set down on a solid piece of land, leaving only a very short drive to reach the Axalon and the bots waiting within. They powered down the engines and other flight systems of the Safeguard before any of them stood from their posts.

"Sideswipe, Sunstreaker," Ironhide said. "Remain here and keep the sensors alert for any sign of trouble. And make sure the fuel tank is full. We don't want to run out of Energon before we make it back to Earth."

"Can do," Sideswipe said.

"Better than going out and ruining my paint in that sand," Sunstreaker said. He scowled out at the deserty area they landed in.

Ironhide rolled his optics at the yellow mech before motioning to Jazz to follow him. "Come on, Jazz," he said, moving toward the Safeguard's exit ramp. "Let's go greet everybot."

"Righ' behin' ya, 'Hide," Jazz said, following after the weapon's specialist.

The two mechs exited the Safeguard and transformed down into their alt modes before speeding off across the desert planes. As they drove, the sand was kicked up, filling the air behind them and coating their alt modes in a thin coat of it before they arrived at the entrance to the Axalon. When they arrived, Elita-1, Chromia and Prowl were all waiting for them, as the others were all gathering what little belongings they had. Ironhide and Jazz transformed as they entered through the docking bay doors.

"_Is this all?"_ Ironhide asked, feeling sadness that there was no one else.

"_The others are getting their things together," _Elita said. _"First Aid, Springer, Flare-up, Mirage, Moonracer, Bluestreak and little Lunarfire are still with us."_

"_The rest either split off to go in another direction or..." _Chromia said, trailing off at the end, not wanting to say it out loud.

Ironhide's spark clenched when he felt the sadness radiating from his mate's end of their bond. Without a care as to who was watching, he took her into his arms in a comforting embrace.

Jazz smirked at the two, feeling happy for his friends to be back together again. He then turned to Elita and Prowl. _"So, when will everybot be ready to depart?" _he asked.

"_Do we have a destination?" _Prowl asked, sounding a little curious.

Ironhide turned his attention to the conversation, though his arm remained around his sparkmate. _"You bet," _he said. _"A planet called Earth. We will be joining Optimus Prime and some others there."_

Elita felt her spirits lift knowing that they had a destination and that Optimus would be there. _"Earth?"_ she asked.

"_It's great, but there are some things everybot is gonna have to learn about it," _Jazz said. _"But we can fill you all in on the way."_

"_Well, ok," _Elita said. _"In the meantime, perhaps Prowl and I can fill you in on what's happened to our group these past vorns."_

"_Of course,"_ Jazz said.

**~A Few Kliks Away, Behind a Rock, Normal PoV~**

"Man, are you sure about this?" a young Tantallian boy asked one of his slightly older peers. His tail swished a little. "Those things look huge!"

"Don't be such a wimp!" one of the group told the youngest of the group. "You want things to change right? Well, that technology is just what we need to get the attention of the Elderly Tantallian Council."

"Those with the best technology always get paid attention to," the eldest, and leader, of the bunch said. "Remember? That's how it has always been."

"But are we sure we can trust those ones with the red eyes?" the youngest asked. "They also said something about tyranny…I'm not so sure that's a good thing…"

"Look," the first of the older spoke again. "If you don't want to do this, then no one is stopping you from returning to the city. But know this, Literia, if you get in our way, we won't hesitate to kill you too." His tail twitched angrily behind him.

Literia swallowed, feeling fear of the two older boys as his blue tail curled into a spiral. He had never seen either like this before. Titherius and Anthanrus had always been nice enough to him, even if their ideas were considered to be radical. He couldn't say he disagreed with everything they said, though.

"Anthanrus," the leader said, reprimanding. "Stop scaring the boy. We need him for this task."

"Alright, alright," Anthanrus said, holding his yellow hands up in surrender even as he bared his fangs.

"Huh? What do you mean, Titherius?" Literia asked.

Titherius placed a green arm smoothly around the youngest's shoulder with a feral grin that sent chills down Literia's spine. "Because, Lit," he said. "You're small. You can easily go unnoticed among such titans. The part we're after is small, so don't worry too much on how you'll carry it."

"I still don't know about this," Literia said.

"Lit, Lit, Lit," Titherius tsked smoothly. "You don't want to be in the lower regions forever, do you?" Literia shook his head unsurely. "This is our ticket to the top, man. Think of the fame! The better living conditions. The power!" His amber colored eyes sparkled with desire for the things he was mentioning.

Literia shivered a little, the fur on his back standing on end a little. "I don't want power," he said. "Or fame."

"But you do want better living conditions, right?" Anthanrus asked temptingly.

"Well…yeah," Literia said.

"So you'll do it, won't you?" Titherius asked. "I promise we'll leave you out of the power and fame. But you will get better living conditions for your family."

"Well…ok," Literia said. "But if we get in trouble, it was all your idea."

"Deal," Titherius said, patting the younger's shoulder once before removing the physical contact. "We'll meet you back at The Hideaway."

Literia sighed as the others started back toward the city. He looked over at the stationary craft as his tail twitched in his anxiety. He had seen two of the enormous beings exit the craft and head off somewhere, but he had no way of knowing if there were any others. The craft was huge, even compared to the giants that had left. Surely it would hold more than two of them. Maybe there were hundreds, no thousands.

Literia gulped as his tail curled into a spiral in his fear once again. "How did I let myself get talked into this?" he asked himself nervously.

He sighed, resigning himself to his fate. He had agreed to go through with it and it would mean his family could gain better living conditions. It would mean that his grandmother could get the medical attention she needed. It would mean they wouldn't be broken apart by circumstances beyond the control of any of them. He didn't want his family to suffer anymore. And if this was how he was going make things better for them, then so be it.

Literia took a deep breath, a determined look coming into his bright yellow eyes. He cautiously moved out from behind the rock and moved a step toward the ship. When nothing happened after a few moments, he gained a little more courage.

"Alright, I can do this," Literia muttered to himself.

He began to run, his legs carrying him as fast as they could. He believed if he could reach the ship fast enough he wouldn't be seen approaching. He stayed close to the ground, wishing he had yellow fur like Anthanrus, to better blend in with the sand of the Barren Land. His blue fur contrasted with the sand, making him stand out against it. He knew if any of the creatures inside looked out a window, they would see him running across the desert toward their ship. He sped up a little at the thought, eager to get out of sight.

"Whew, made it," Literia panted when he made it, pressing himself against the side of the ship.

He waited for a full minute before he even dared to move again. When he did move, he peered around constantly as he moved toward the large opening that would grant him access. He was so nervous and anxious as he walked that he missed seeing the yellow mech as he passed by. Luckily for him, the yellow mech was too busy running a diagnostic on the ship's systems to notice the small creature that was about half the size of an average human. The small being wasn't oblivious to the fact that he was very small compared to everything, though.

_They could easily just squish me if I am caught,_ Literia thought to himself.

Suddenly, Literia found himself get yanked into the air by his tail. He yelped as the sensitive part of his body was pulled tightly. His arms and legs flailed as he attempted to free himself from whatever was lifting him higher and higher.

"Now what do we have here?" the being that had picked him up said.

"Please, please, please, it wasn't my idea!" Literia pleaded, closing his eyes and silently praying that the gods-that-be have mercy on him.

"What are you talking about, small fry?" the mech asked.

Literia finally opened his eyes when he felt himself be dropped and landed on a hard surface. He found that he was resting in a metal palm, or what at least passed for a palm. He peered over the edge of the hand and immediately regretted it, retracting himself immediately and pressing himself against the fingers of the hand he sat in before looking up at his captor with wide eyes. The large being was largely red in color, had blue eyes and was looking at him with a semi-curious semi-suspicious expression.

"What wasn't your idea?" the red mech asked, moving the being in his hand closer to his face.

"I-I…u-um," Literia stuttered, feeling his bearther(the Tantallian term for heart) beat faster with every moment.

"Well?" the red being pressed.

Literia wanted to say something. Anything. But he found all he could was stare and tremble. And then, when a loud clang sounded through the halls, he simply passed out in the hand of the large red being.

**~Aboard the Axalon, Normal PoV~**

"_I've missed you," _Ironhide said as he held his sparkmate close to him. He rubbed his hand down her back soothingly.

Chromia sighed as she relaxed in his hold. _"I've missed you too MyMech," _she said. She grinned as they pressed their helms together. _"We have a lot of catching up to do."_

"_Yes," _Ironhide agreed, but paused in everything as he received a comm from Sideswipe.

"**Ironhide, you may want to hear this," **Sideswipe said.

Ironhide held back a growl at the mech's interruption. **"What is it Sideswipe? It better be important," **he sent back, making sure to make it clear how irritated he was with his comm.

"**Unless you call a local intruding upon the Safeguard with questionable intents, unimportant," **Sideswipe said. **"I smell trouble."**

Ironhide sighed. **"I'll be right there," **he said.

"_What is it?" _Chromia asked.

"_There's been an intruder on the Safeguard," _Ironhide told her. _"I better go check it out. We don't want anything that could possible get us all stranded here to happen. Optimus is expecting us back on Earth."_

Chromia nodded, giving him one last squeeze before backing up. _"I'll go with you," _she said.

Ironhide nodded before both moved out of the femme's quarters. Chromia commed Elita to let her know that she and Ironhide were headed over to the Safeguard to investigate something as Ironhide commed Prowl to tell him to meet them at the docking bay in less than two kliks. He knew the mech was well versed in investigation situations, having been a law enforcer back on Cybertron. He also commed Jazz, as he knew the mech would be happy to help get to the bottom of their intruder. After that, they only took a klik and a couple nano-kliks to reach the docking bay, where Jazz was already opening the doors.

"_What's up?"_ Jazz asked as the four bots left the Axalon and started for the Safeguard.

"_Sideswipe says there's a local onboard with questionable intents," _Ironhide explained as they transformed down to their alts and sped toward their destination.

"_So we're investigating it," _Prowl surmised.

"_Exactly,"_ Ironhide said.

The four bots made their way to the Safeguard, sensors on alert for any sign of locals aside from the one that Sideswipe and Sunstreaker had placed in the storage room and were no doubt watching closely. They transformed back into their bipedal modes as soon as they hit the top of the entrance ramp and headed toward the room. They found Sideswipe standing guard outside the door, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. They could only guess that Sunstreaker was inside, making sure whatever being they had discovered on board didn't escape.

Sideswipe looked up as they arrived. _"Took you long enough," _he said.

"_Sideswipe, what exactly happened?" _Prowl asked.

"_I was just headed to the bridge to run a systems check," _Sideswipe said. _"And I came across a little organic creature. When I discovered him, he kept saying that something wasn't his idea, but the tiny thing passed out before I could find out what he was talking about. Oh, by the way, he speaks English."_

"_English? But that's an Earth language," _Jazz said. _"How does a species light years away from there know English?"_

"_Perhaps the same way we do," _Sideswipe suggested. _"Perhaps they, or their ancestors, were on Earth before."_

"_It is also possible that it is merely a coincidence," _Ironhide said. He turned to the silver saboteur. _"Jazz, I would have Prowl question him, but seeing as how he speaks English and we have yet to give him the proper data packets…"_

"_On it 'Hide," _Jazz said, nodding. _"Just leave it to me."_

Sideswipe moved out of the way as the saboteur entered the room and dismissed Sunstreaker from watch duty.

The first thing Jazz noticed was that the organic creature was huddled in the far corner, looking as if he was trying to make himself smaller than he already was. The poor thing looked frightened out of his mind as he watched fretfully as Jazz moved closer, taking the appearance of the creature. It was even tinier than the humans back on Earth, only about a fourth of the height of the average human. It had blue fur covering its body, though that was then covered by garments similar to those that humans wore. It had human-like ears, a feline-like muzzle and a long tail that changed ever so slightly in thickness at the end, which was currently curled in a tight spiral. Its yellow eyes were wide as it pressed itself further against the wall.

"P-please," it stuttered in a very male sounding voice, despite the obvious fear in it. "I-it wasn't my idea…Don't kill me! I-I'm just a kid! I didn't know!"

"Easy there," Jazz said, kneeling down in front of the creature. "Ah ain't gonna hurt ya. But wat wasn' yer idea?"

"I-I…u-um," the small creature said nervously, never taking his eyes away from the much larger being in front of him.

Jazz sighed, seeing that he would have to get the being more comfortable with him before he could make any process. He held out a finger and the creature recoiled even more.

"My name's Jazz," he said. "Sabotage expert of the Autobots and defender of the weak."

The small creature blinked when he realized that this giant being really wasn't going to hurt him. At least…not yet. He tentatively reached out and grabbed ahold of the offered digit and Jazz minutely moved it up and down in a small handshake.

"I-I'm Literia," the small creature nervously. "Son of Jasererious and Amethystia, and doomed to a life in the Lower Regions." His tail remained curled, but relaxed ever so slightly.

"Al'ight, Literia," Jazz said, taking a seat on the floor and giving the being his undivided attention. "Now dat we know each other, why don' ya tell meh wat you're doin' on our ship."

"Well, um, it's kind of a long story, you see," Literia said. "But mostly, I was here to steal a part. You see, I was dragged into this by a couple friends of mine."

"Don' keep tryin' to push da blame 'way from yerself, kid," Jazz said, remembering that he had said he was only a kid. Probably had fallen prey to what many beings did in their youngling years, peer pressure. "It's ya own faul' ya followed dem."

Literia's face fell even as his tail drooped in his apparent shame.

"Now," Jazz said. "Wat were ya gonna use da part for?"

"To get better lives for my family," Literia said honestly. "You see, on Tantallia those with the best technology get the bet living conditions. My family doesn't have anything, so we are stuck in the Lower Regions. Food is scarce and our buildings are falling apart. I just wanted it to get my family into the Higher Regions. They never have want for food there and their buildings are in perfect conditions."

Jazz listened to the boy explain to him the reasoning behind his attempt at theft. Apparently, alongside the living condition issue, the Elder Tantallian Council, which Jazz assumed to be the ruling body of his species, wouldn't listen to anyone in the Lower Regions when they tried to bring their issues before them. The ones with the best technology apparently were the only ones worth paying attention to in their eyes. They would solve their issues on their own if they knew how, but that was part of the problem, no one in the Lower Regions knew how to upkeep their homes or plant crop. And even if a family made it to the Higher Regions, that didn't solve the problems of the Lower Regions as a whole.

"Wat 'bout hunting?" Jazz asked. "Do any of ya know how ta hunt?"

"Hunt?" Literia asked. "What would we hunt? Last I checked, vegetables, fruits and grains don't walk around."

Jazz blinked. "Ya mean ta tell me, yer species don' eat meat? Then wat're yer teeth sharp for?" he asked.

Literia shrugged. "No one knows anymore," he said. "It's been lost in history."

Jazz gave the little creature a bewildered expression. To him, it seemed that the technology-biased nature of their society was only part of their problem. He thought a moment about the fact that Literia said they would solve their problems themselves if they could before excusing himself.

"Excuse me a minute," Jazz said, getting up.

"O-ok," Literia said, nervous again now that the being had stood up and he was reminded how large he was.

Jazz exited the storage-room-turned-brig and let the door closed behind him as he motioned for those present to follow him further away. Once he felt they were far enough away, the group congregated into a circle for discussion. Jazz relayed what he had learned from the young Tantallian to his fellow bots before proposing something.

"_I think we should help them where we can," _Jazz said. _"We're gonna be here for a mega-cycle anyway, why not use that time to teach them basic survival skills."_

"_We cannot change an entire culture in an orn, Jazz," _Prowl said. _"Much less merely a mega-cycle."_

"_I'm not talking about changing the entire culture, Prowl," _Jazz said. _"Just to give them the tools they need to do it themselves."_

"_I think we should do it," _Chromia said. _"They're living beings, they should get a chance at living like living beings."_

Ironhide nodded, agreeing with his sparkmate's sentiments. _"Alright," _ he said. _"Chromia, Prowl, gather the rest of your team. If we're gonna do this, you all need to learn English. Jazz, tell our guest that he doesn't have to worry about stealing parts anymore."_

**~Roughly Half An Hour Later, Normal PoV~**

Literia couldn't believe it, even as he rushed back to his city to deliver the news to his people. Beings from another planet, who no doubt had their own problems, were going to teach them how to live without the need to get the attention of those in the Higher Regions. And he knew the Elder Tantallian Council would never even care that those of the Lower Regions were learning something that they hadn't bothered to teach them. When it came to the Lower Regions, they didn't exist to those in the Higher Regions.

"Just wait till everyone hears," Literia said to himself excitedly. "We won't have to rely on trying to find ways to get the Elder Council's attention anymore! We won't have to live in shambles anymore either!"

He was so excited about this turn of events that he had all but forgotten about Anthanrus's earlier threat to kill him if he got in their way, even as he made his way to The Hideout, which was the city that he and his two friends lived in. It was called that due to the fact that, despite being right on the edge of the Barren Land's deserts, it was surrounded by lush trees and foliage, hiding it from the rest of the world. In the middle of the thick of trees was the falling apart city. Despite being surrounded by vegetation, not much of it was edible. Only a few select plants that grew there were edible and they weren't exactly common.

Literia could only sigh at the fact that they had such a hard time feeding a population of barely one hundred, because of the fact they did not know how to grow their own food. In relying upon the wildlife and what little they did receive from outside sources they were playing a dangerous game of chance. They had no control over their resources, only how it was distributed. The residents all worked together and there wasn't a Tantallian who lived in The Hideout who didn't know everyone else who lived in the city. They worked together to barely live on what they had. They were half-starved and some were dying of sicknesses they had no cure for. But all that would change once the Autobots taught them how to live.

"Dorriss! Marriss!(the Tantallian terms for father and mother respectively)" Literia called as soon as he stepped foot into his living area. It couldn't really be called shelter or a house, since the roof was collapsed and it was closer to a pile of rubble.

"Literia?" Amethystia asked, wondering what had her son so excited. Her purple tail swished a little in curiosity. Her orange eyes also betrayed her curiosity, along with some worry as she stood at twice the height of the young Literia.

"You guys aren't gonna believe this!" Literia said excitedly. "Gather the pack, Dorriss! I got news that will affect all of us!"

Jasererious raised an eyebrow at his son. His red fur on his back stood on end a bit as he got the sense that whatever it was his son had discovered, his son's friends were gonna try to use it in a way his son would not like. He knew his son had good intentions, but he wasn't so sure about Anthanrus and Titherius.

He narrowed his yellow eyes as he looked at his son. "Good or bad?" he asked, concerned his son was actually delivering bad news and acting cheerful so they didn't panic right away.

"Don't worry, it's good news," Literia said. "Now hurry up! We don't got all day!"

**~Another Half an Hour Later, Normal PoV~**

To say Anthanrus was mad would be an understatement. He was beyond mad. He was beyond the simple confines of the word "angry". He was furious. One simple task. That was all that they had asked of their young friend. Instead, not only did Literia fail to retrieve the part they had sent him after, but he was doing something completely different. No. This was not the plan. He would have to pay…

"Calm down Anthanrus," Titherius said calmly. "This does not ruin our plans. We can use this to our advantage. After all, what's more high tech than living machines?"

Anthanrus gave his friend and cohort a look before turning his attention to where Literia was introducing a group of titanic metal beings.

"I dunno man, what if that red eyed one finds out?" Anthanrus asked. "Then we'll be dead instead of them."

"Relax," Titherius said. "Those blokes left ages ago. Besides, we're not aligning ourselves with these guys. We're gonna force them to work for us."

"How are we gonna do that?" Anthanrus asked.

"Easy," Titherius said. "I learned a few tricks from our…other metallic friends." He grinned, a mix between his fangs and the look in his eyes making him look vicious.

**~The Next Day, Normal PoV~**

"That was a nice job you did, Literia," a blue Tantallian girl told him as they walked through the new crop field that was being cleared of weeds and bushes. They were headed to where the bot called First Aid would be teaching them about medicine and such.

"Ah, it was nothing Saphire," Literia said, rubbing the back of his head as he became embarrassed. "You would've done the same."

Saphire shook her head and looked away slightly. "I would've been too scared," she said. "They'd never had even gotten a word out of me."

"You think I wasn't scared? Ha!" Literia said. "Did mention that I passed out in fear?"

Saphire looked at her friend in shock. "You?" she asked. "Pass out in fear? I don't believe it."

"It's true!" Literia said indignantly.

"Literia!"

The familiar voice had both beings looking up to find Titherius running over.

"Literia," Saphire said quietly. "Don't tell me you're still hanging out with him? He's been spouting that tyranny crap for weeks now…"

"I don't think he'll actually do anything, Saphire," Literia reassured his friend.

"Hey Lit," Titherius said when he caught up to the two. "Can I talk to you for a moment?" He looked briefly at Saphire. "Alone?"

Saphire looked at Literia as she silently begged him not to go alone, but the young boy was oblivious to it.

"Sure," Literia said. He turned to Saphire. "Could you tell First Aid that I might be a bit late?"

"Sure, but…"

"Thanks! You're a big help," Titherius said in a I-don't-mean-it-but-I'm-saying-it-anyways tone. He grabbed Literia's wrist and started pulling him off with him. "Come on, let's go."

"See you later Saphire!" Literia called back to his friend before turning to what was ahead of him.

He was not really sure where Titherius was taking him, but he trusted him enough to believe it wouldn't be anywhere bad. He turned out to be right when they stopped in a secluded area of the forests surrounding The Hideout. It wasn't far enough away from the others that Literia was worried, though. If he had known what Titherius had to say, he probably would've been though.

"You did a good job bringing those machines here, Lit," Titherius said, walking away a little bit with his back to the younger Tantallian, hands behind his back.

Literia felt a small bit of indignance. "They are not machines, Titherius," he said. "They are living beings. I thought I made that clear at the pack meeting."

"You did, you did," Titherius said, waving a hand. He turned to Literia and grinned, sending shivers down the boy's spine. "But come on, Lit. You can't say you don't see an opportunity here."

"I see an opportunity to live without the Higher Regions," Literia said, standing as tall as he could. "I see a chance at real freedom."

Titherius scowled a little. "Lit, Lit, Lit," he said, shaking his head. He walked over and placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "You lack ambition."

"What do you mean?" Literia asked, wondering where he was going with this.

"Don't you see, Lit?" Titherius asked. "These Autobots are our ticket to the Higher Regions. To power. With them working for us, we'll run the place! And everyone will bow to our will!"

Literia broke away from his older friend's hold on his shoulder. "No," he said. "Stop talking like those Decepticons that were here weeks ago. Titherius, they will not do what you want. You can't make them and you can't make me either."

Titherius's tail flicked angrily as he snarled. "We'll see about that," he said. Without any more warning than that, he pounced into action.

Before Literia really had time to react, he found himself on the ground with his older 'friend' on top of him, holding him down. Titherius then dragged him to his feet, keeping a tight grip on Literia's wrists. He snarled as he brought his mouth close to the smaller one's ear.

"We'll see how they feel when their friend's life relies upon their cooperation," he hissed before leading Literia off.

Literia tried to free himself from his grip, but in response all he got was something furry and spiky at his throat. It took him a moment to realize the end of Titherius's tail was what it was. He became perplexed.

"What the fraggles?" he said.

"Just a little something I would've taught you had you followed me," Titherius said. "Did you know we were once a carnivorous race?" He bared his fangs as Literia shuddered.

**~Elsewhere, Normal PoV~**

"Where is he?" Saphire asked no one in particular.

"Who?" Sideswipe, who was helping with clearing the field for crops.

"Literia!" Saphire said. "He missed our session with First Aid _and_ our session with Prowl. It is not like him to miss things, especially considering _what_ this is. That Titherius is a bad influence…"

"Who's Titherius?" Sideswipe asked, becoming increasingly concerned for the small being. Seeing as how he had been the one to discover the blue boy, he felt he was somewhat responsible for him.

"Oh, he's an older boy in the pack," Saphire explained. "Nothing but trouble if you ask me. He's been spouting some nonsense about peace through tyranny lately. No one knows where he heard it, though."

Sideswipe's optics widened a little. "Are you serious?" he asked.

"Very, why?" Saphire asked, looking up at the large red mech in confusion. "Have you heard that before?"

"That motto is the motto of our worst enemy," Sideswipe said. "It's what the Decepticons believe. They're about the worst beings you could run into in the entire universe! If this Titherius is spouting that nonsense, it can only mean he met a Con and has sided with them. Which means, he's dangerous."

Saphire's tail curled in worry for her friend. "Literia went off to speak with Titherius just before he disappeared," she said.

"Would Literia follow a being who wanted to force his rule on others?" Sideswipe asked.

Saphire shook her head. "No, no he wouldn't," she said. "That's the last thing he would want."

"Then I'm afraid our friend is most likely in danger," Sideswipe said. He stood up straight, depositing the bushes he had ripped out the ground in the pile. "I'm going to go find him. Remain here and don't tell anyone. We need to keep all this on schedule. Our time here is limited."

Saphire nodded. "A-alright," she said.

Sideswipe gave a two finger salute before dashing off, putting his sensors on high alert. He didn't want to bring any of the others into this, so he didn't comm any of them and told Sunstreaker to not worry and stay out of it over their sibling bond. He then focused all of his attention on finding their small friend. He searched the entire city, which didn't take long considering its size, before moving on to the surrounding forest.

"Come on kid, where are ya?" Sideswipe muttered to himself as he searched for any sign of the furry little being.

He knelt down to inspect the ground of the area of the forest he was now in. There were a couple sets of footprints and he could tell there had been a struggle of some kind. Not an all-out brawl or even a lengthy fight between two beings, but there had definitely been a struggle. There was also a trial leading away from the area and deeper into the forest. He traced a finger on a line in the dirt before clenching his fist.

"Mess with a friend of the Bots, would ya?" Sideswipe said with anger apparent in his voice despite no one being around to hear him.

He stood up straight again and began following the trial through the forest. He followed the trial for quite a ways, taking note of every spot it appeared that Literia had made a struggle against Titherius, cause he was sure they were the ones he was trialing. It took him about an hour in total, including the time he had been searching the city, to find where Titherius had taken Literia. It was almost to the edge of the forest near the Barren Lands, as he had found out the desert was called, in a small clearing that contained a few boulders. He easily hid behind a boulder to listen in on what was going on.

"The Autobots will never help you," Literia was saying. "And neither will I!"

Sideswipe only had a moment to feel proud of the little guy before Titherius spoke.

"Too bad," Titherius said in a menacing tone that would give Megatron a run for his Energon. "And here I was gonna give you a position of power once the world was under my control."

"I told you before," Literia said. "I'm not interested in power. Especially not at the expense of others."

Titherius growled and lunged at Literia, spikes on the end of his tail whipping toward the boy in his intention to teach him a lesson he wouldn't soon forget. However, before the blow could be delivered, he found himself being lifted in the air by the very tail he had been attacking with. He howled in pain due to the strain on it. Literia found he only marginally felt bad for the way in which Sideswipe had grabbed him, knowing how much that hurt from experience.

"Let go of me you overgrown bucket of bolts!" Titherius hissed as he was brought up to eye level with the red mech.

"Not likely," Sideswipe said, wrapping his digits around the being and holding him so his arms were pinned to his side and his tail was rendered immobile. "If I were smart I would just squish you right now before you caused more trouble than your worth for the rest of your pack."

Titherius growled. "Go ahead!" he said. "Anthanrus will continue in my place and gather others to the cause."

"No, I think not," Sideswipe said, even as he knelt down and released Literia from the makeshift rope that held him. "What do you think we should do with him, Literia?"

"I think I'll leave that for my dorriss to decide," Literia said, brushing himself off. He climbed into Sideswipe's free hand when it was offered. "He is the leader of the pack, after all."

"Very well," Sideswipe said before standing up straight and starting back toward The Hideout.

**~A Week Later, Normal PoV~**

There had been no more problems after the incident with Titherius kidnapping Literia. The green Tantallian boy and his friend, Anthanrus, were both placed in a makeshift, but sturdy, jail cell Prowl and Mirage had fashioned for the pack. Jasererious had decided that instead of an execution, which would likely only make them martyrs, or banishment, which would leave them free to spread their ideals to other cities, that they would be sentenced to imprisonment for the rest of their lives. There was constantly a guard on duty to watch them, the job being taken in shifts by the hand full of Tantallians that had learned law enforcement from Prowl.

Having discovered that they were carnivorous in nature, the pack had decided to learn how to hunt the various animals that resided in the woods. Not really knowing much about hunting, Ironhide and the twins had taught them some battle techniques they thought would come in handy and leave them to figure out the rest. With only a mega-cycle to teach them in, the Bots were glad the Tantallians were fast learners. They had even figured out the trick with their tails, thanks to Saphire's grand-dorriss who had been around prior to the banning of the use of the tail as a weapon.

Their training in other areas had gone well as well. The bots didn't feel they were truly ready to live on their own, but would have to trust that they would be able to pick up what was left on their own. Literia and many of the pack assured them that they would live without them many times before the bots all headed back out into the Barren Lands to return to the Safeguard to leave for Earth. Literia and Saphire went with them to see them off.

"You were really courageous back there, you know," Sideswipe told Literia as they were about to part ways at the bottom of the entrance ramp.

"Actually, I was terrified," Literia said, rubbing his head sheepishly.

"Courage ain't the absence of fear kid," Ironhide said. "It's standing up for what's right even when you'd rather run the other way."

"You did well," Bluestreak added.

"Aw shucks," Literia said, feeling embarrassed from the compliments, especially with Saphire right there.

"I dunno how we can ever thank you," Saphire told the large beings.

"Well actually…" Sideswipe started, but was interrupted when Ironhide smacked his helm.

"There is no need to thank us, Saphire," Prowl told her. "It is an Autobot's duty to help those in need."

"Oh," Saphire said. She turned to Literia. "But that doesn't I can't thank you for bringing them to us." She leaned over and pecked her friend on the cheek.

"U-uh, u-um, y-your w-welcome?" Literia said in a stuttering mess that left most of the bots laughing at his expense.

"Well, we better get going," Ironhide said. "The others are waiting for us."

"See you around kid," Sideswipe said before following the others into the Ssafeguard.

"See you around, Sides," Literia said.

The two Tantallians moved away far enough that they wouldn't be harmed during their friends' take off and then turned to watch them go. They watched until the enormous space craft was out of sight and then continued watching for a moment.

Saphire reached over and grabbed her friend's hand. "Come on," she said. "Let's go get some food. I'm starving!"

Literia's stomach growled at the mention of food. "Yes," he agreed. "Let's."


	25. Trapped Without a Voice

**A/N: **HA! I GOT IT DONE! Lol. Sorry, I am just happy I got this done before 3, cause I would've gone to bed right after Sci got off if it was and I had one line and author's replies to do first.

I'm sure you all will be happy to hear that we are back with Amelia and them. :)

**Author's Replies:**

**Sailor Shinzo: **Well, you'll find out if you read this chapter. :)

**Luna Prime- Awesomeness: **Glad you liked it. :D

**Princess Thil Galel: **I want to know who could've? Lol

**Jazz-Transformers: **Don't worry, we return to them in this chapter. ;)

**Mercedes Wolfcry: **Thanks!

**ilikeanimeandmanga: **Yeah! And I finally beat Trypticon too! I love that game. Glad you liked it and I'm glad you liked my OC race too. :)

**Jayna Prime: **You reviewed a story that's not IOW-TTT! XD Sorry, it's just been awhile since you read my stories aside from that one…I am glad you liked it, sis. And yes, I am evil *grin* Cliffhangars! And point of view switches! XD lol

**xVentressx: **Thanks! Glad you like it!

And NOW! The chapter you've all been waiting for! Returning to the main story…Enjoy!

**Chapter 25: Trapped Without a Voice**

**~Aboard the Nemesis, Normal PoV~**

"You never told me why our friend was in stasis back there, Megatron," Orion Pax told the large silver mech as he led him toward the med bay where the femme was at the moment.

Megatron scowled a little, not that Orion could see it from behind him. He had already convinced the mech that Cybertron's fall had been Ratchet's doing and had his agreement to search the files he had gotten from Iacon. He didn't want to risk the femme ruining his plans, but he knew that if he had any hope of her behaving, he would be wise to keep her around Orion since she likely wouldn't want to inadvertently prove to him that Autobots were cruel and vicious. That was why he had ordered Knock Out to disable her vocals and her internals.

"She was…injured by our Autobot enemies," Megatron explained. "She had gotten attacked by one of Ratchet's lackeys during our venture to rescue you."

Orion's expression grew hard. If what his old friend was saying is true, then he did not particularly care for these…Autobots. Still, he had a hard time believing that the Ratchet he had known was capable of such horrors that left Cybertron in shambles. But then, he had no reason to doubt Megatron's word.

"Wait here," Megatron said just as they reached the med bay doors. "I will see if she is up to visitors."

"Of course," Orion said and waited while his friend went in.

Megatron entered the med bay, the door closing behind him and blocking all sound from the hallway and found the amusing sight of his medic cowering behind a med berth while the femme fumed with a wrench held threateningly in her servo. He could see a dent on the side of Knock Out's helm, no doubt given him by the Autobot femme wielding a wrench. As much as he would've enjoyed seeing the medic get pounded by the femme that was obviously irate, he had to set this situation straight before he let Orion in.

He took a step closer, even as the seemingly oblivious femme clenched the wrench in her hand and grabbed her around the throat. He calmly moved his head to the side to avoid the wrench thrown in his direction before snarling at the femme.

"Knock Out! Have you deactivated her vocals as I asked?" Megatron asked.

"Did more than that," Knock Out said. "I removed them. They're safely in my locked storage container. I was unable to change her energy signature…" Megatron sneered at that proof of Knock Out's incompetence, seeing as how he had had a week to work, "…as she came to before I had a chance, but I was able to disabled her internals as you commanded, Lord Megatron."

"Good," Megatron said, holding the femme in the air. "Now femme, I don't know who you really are. But know this. One wrong step and your precious Prime will be a pile of scrap. Who, might I say, has no memories of being a Prime, and it will stay that way, do you understand? Otherwise, he won't be the only scrap pile around here."

The femme squirmed a little more as a whining sound escaped her throat, evidence of the missing voice box. The downward tilt of her door wings, however, proved to him that she would behave for the sake of her amnesic Prime. He sneered again before setting her on her pedes and releasing her throat. He was well aware of the glare that threatened to burn through his armor plating as he went to allow Orion entrance.

**~Amelia's PoV~**

I rubbed at my throat, glaring daggers at Megatron's back as he went toward the door. I glanced at Knock Out to see him glowering at me for the dent I gave him on the side of his helm. When the door opened, though, he walked away, likely to fix his face. If my voice box wasn't missing I would've grumbled about how annoying it was to lack a voice. But then, that wouldn't be something I had to grumble about I suppose.

I tried not to offline in pure shock when Optimus walked into the med bay. Megatron did say he didn't know he was Prime after all. Megatron was probably twisting things to bend Orion Pax, for I did recall Optimus had said that's who he had been before, to his will. Probably spouting some nonsense about the Autobots being responsible for some kind of ruin. And that it was the Autobots that wanted to conquer the Earth. If Megatron had his way, Orion would believe the opposite of the truth indefinitely. I was sure of that.

"She cannot speak as the Autobot that attacked her damaged her voice box beyond repair," Megatron said and my door wing twitched in my irritation at the blatant lie.

Orion misunderstood it though, clearly believing my irritation was at the fictional Autobot attacker. I wanted so bad to tell Megatron to stuff it and drag Orion out of here and tell him the truth of the matter. Even as Orion gave his comfort and Megatron told him I would remain with him in the data station until further notice, I wished I could just punch Megatron in the face, but something told me that wouldn't be such a good idea.

_This must be how Bee felt when he first lost his voice,_ I thought to myself as Orion and I were led out of the med bay. _Except I dunno if this is worse or his situation was worse._

We were led through the corridors and as we walked past a door a few kliks after we had left med bay, I was hit by an eerily familiar smell. It was that tampered Energon smell from that mission with Ratchet in the swamp. The same smell that had led us to the twins. And Shockwave. I didn't realize I had stopped and was giving the door a weird look until the two mechs had stopped as well and looked back at me.

"What is it, Amelia?" Megatron asked, sounding quite irritated.

_Great, he knows my name,_ I thought bitterly, even as I made motions with my hand to say something smelled from behind the door.

"It's just Shockwave's lab," Megatron said. "You're probably smelling his work."

He continued on, but Orion waited for me to take a place next to him and I was sure he didn't miss my shiver, even though Megatron failed to notice. Whether he misunderstood it due to Megatron's deception or if he took it for what it was, was hard to tell. He did, however, put a hand on my shoulder briefly in a comforting gesture, but quickly dropped it when it appeared as though Megatron had been about to turn around.

The leader of the Decepticons led us to a room and I could see barely down the hall where a couple Cons were guarding a different room. I eyed them suspiciously even as Megatron ushered us into the room. There were a few computers with one main one taking up most of one wall.

"This is where you'll be working," Megatron said. "If you wouldn't mind, I'd like you to start Project Iacon right away."

"Of course," Orion said.

Megatron turned and walked back out the door, roughly putting a hand on my head and shoving downward a bit. I growled at his back as he walked out before the door closed.

"Well, Amelia, I'd better get to work," Orion said, turning to the computer console.

I gave an exaggerated motion with my hands before sighing and walking over and sitting against the wall to Orion's right. I pulled my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around them before placing my forehead on my knees. My door wings drooped as the reality of my situation fully sank in. It was a pretty grim outlook on things.

I was trapped on a Decepticon ship, which apparently had Shockwave aboard. Optimus Prime thought he was Orion Pax and Megatron's clerk or something. I couldn't talk. I couldn't use my internals, cause I had tried. My throat was sore from where Megatron had choked me. I had no way of contacting the Bots and no way of telling Orion the truth without Megatron knowing. I had a feeling this room was more closely monitored than he let on. After all, if I were Megatron, I certainly wouldn't trust an Autobot with a bot I was deceiving no matter how mute that Bot was.

I put my helm back and it touched the wall just hard enough to give a small clack and gain Orion's attention. I sighed heavily, optics moving to what he was working on. What would he find? What kind of help will this ridiculousness give Megatron? And how do I stop it?

"Are you alright?" Orion asked, pausing in his work.

I raised an optic ridge at him, giving him a look that meant I was not. I wanted to tell him exactly what was wrong so that maybe he'd believe me, but I was not sure how to do so without my voice. I held my hands out helplessly instead, not really knowing what else to do.

"I am sorry," Orion said. "It must be hard losing your voice. I wish I could help you."

_Just go get my voice box from Knock Out's lab and put it where it belongs!_ I screamed in my head, taking my frustrations out mentally since I couldn't calmly tell him what really happened. Outwardly, I merely sighed.

"Hmm, perhaps this will allow you communication," Orion said, pulling a datapad out of nowhere. He handed it to me before turning back to the computer.

I blinked at the mech, looked at the datapad, blinked at it and then looked back at Orion. I had no idea that Optimus kept a blank datapad on him all the time. But clearly he must've always done that, seeing as how Orion Pax knew it was in his subspace. I looked back at the datapad before looking at the work that Orion was doing. It appeared that he was decoding some files, likely stolen from some Autobot stronghold during the war on Cybertron. I huffed a little, but this time Orion did not seem to pick up on my irritation or he assumed I was huffing about something I was writing.

Deciding that merely thinking about it wasn't going to get me anywhere, I began the slow process of translating my thoughts into Cybertronian writing.

**~Autobot Base, Normal PoV~**

The atmosphere in the base was filled with a sense of unease and frustration. The bots looked non-stop for their wayward leader and the femme that had been taken with him for the past week. The humans still to go on with their normal lives, but they helped search when they got out of school, and in Jack's case, off his shift at KO-Burgers.

Ratchet growled a little at the error message that came up on the screen. Despite the modifications he and Raf had made to the systems, they still had the occasionally problem with bugs. One seems to have appeared with the modifications he had retrofitted to try to find the location of the Nemesis. He figured that would be the best place to start. If they could find it.

"Another bug?" Raf's voice brought him out of his thoughts.

"Yes," Ratchet said with a sigh as he turned slightly to see the boy walking up.

"Here, let me see," Raf said as he removed his backpack from his shoulders.

Ratchet reflected that there was once a time when he would've doubted Raf capable of fixing the bug. But the young human had proven time and time again that he was very adept when it came to human computers. So he merely waited for Raf to plug in his laptop and find and fix the problem, whatever it may be.

"Try it now," Raf said, looking up when he was finished typing in a set of command codes.

Ratchet typed in the commands to have the new modifications run and this time it worked. The system began a systematic scan, searching for even the slightest sign of a large space craft flying in Earth's atmosphere. Now he just had to wait and pray that this idea worked. The modifications were basically a power boost to the sensors that usually searched out Cybertronian signals, to allow for better results. It was a long shot expecting it to be able to find the cloaked Decepticon warship, but he hoped it would at least find Amelia's spark signature. Her signal had popped back up with the others, but it disappeared when she had been taken to the Nemesis. He hoped it was simply the cloaking causing them to be unable to find it.

"**Ironhide to Base," **Ironhide's voice in the communications system startled Ratchet momentarily. **"Anybody home?"**

"**Ironhide?" **Ratchet answered.

"**Ratchet! Just thought I'd call to let you all know we're gonna be entering the atmosphere tomorrow," **Ironhide said. **"Our mission was a success. We brought back some reinforcements."**

"**Acknowledged," **Ratchet said, thankful that their group at least had had good luck.

"**Jazz won't leave me alone until I ask," **Ironhide said. **"How's everybot doing down there?"**

Ratchet sighed. **"Hope you're sitting down," **he said. **"It's a long story."**

There was a pause on the other end as the bots on the other side took that in.

"**Why wha' happened?" **Jazz's voice entered the conversation.

Trying to ignore the way his spark cringed at what he had to explain to those bots that were on their way.

**~The Nemesis, Amelia's PoV~**

As I wrote, I could feel Orion glance at me every now and then, no doubt wondering what was taking me so long. I was taking so long because of two reasons. One, Megatron popped in earlier to check on progress and I had not wanting him poking his nose into it so I had quickly hid it in my subspace. Orion, thankfully, had caught this and didn't tell Megatron a thing about the data pad. The second reason was that I was translating a very carefully worded synapses of what he needed to know.

I underlined, bolded and starred the words "Optimus Prime" before hiding the pad behind my back as the door opened. I tensed slightly when a couple of Vehicons entered and one of them looked right at me, even as Orion turned around in his spot to look at the Cons. He glanced toward me when he saw one of the looking at me as I shrank back a little, holding the pad behind my back. He turned back to the Vehicons as one walked toward me, though I knew he was keeping an optic on him. 

"What is this about?" Orion asked.

"Megatron wants to see the femme," the one that hadn't moved toward me said.

The other dragged me to my feet roughly. I growled as I pulled my arm from his grasp, but he only grabbed me roughly again and began dragging me toward the door.

"Is the force really necessary?" Orion asked and I could see in his optics he wanted to stop the Con from manhandling me further, but thought he couldn't.

"It is when she is an Autobot spy," the Vehicon holding me said.

Orion's optics widened minutely and I looked at him, begging him silently to remember where he stands in this war. I had dropped the pad when the Vehicon had dragged me to my feet, but I didn't dare motion to it for fear the Cons would catch my movement.

"Come on you," the Vehicon holding my arms behind my back said and roughly pushed me toward the door, breaking my optic contact with Orion.

I let out a small growl that was bordering a whine as I walked defeatedly toward the door.

**~Normal PoV~**

Orion Pax watched as Megatron's men escorted the femme known as Amelia from his work station. He couldn't help but feel that letting them walk off with the femme was the wrong decision. They were being needlessly rough with her, even though she wasn't fighting back. And the look in her optics when she had looked at him tore at his spark, calling him to some kind of action that would save her from whatever Megatron had in store for her. Somehow, behind the pleading in her optics had been what appeared to be a firm belief in him, but he had no idea where that belief had come from. He had been in stasis for a long time if Megatron was telling the truth.

When the three bots were gone, he turned back toward his work, feeling as if there was something he was missing. He was about to get into the archives again when he spotted something out of his peripheral. Laying on the ground in the spot the femme had occupied was the datapad he had given her, that she had been writing on for several breems. He looked at the door again, realizing she had left it on purpose, she could've easily subspaced it. He found himself curious and walked over. If she was indeed a spy, then it would contain copies of what was on the monitors. If not, then he wanted to know what she had wanted to tell him.

He walked over to the datapad and leaned down to pick it up. He could tell right away that she was not practiced with writing on datapads, making him wonder what she used to record things usually. He stood up straight and leaned against the wall as he read what Amelia had written.

_Hey, you need to know some things. First thing, the Autobots are not behind my lack of voice. I figure Megatron has told you a few things that are his fault are the Autobot's fault. Words of advice, never believe a thing he says. It's all lies. That is why he is called "Decepticon", not whatever crap he told you about the reasoning. And he is very good at it too. So is his second-in-command, Starscream. Lies are in their nature._

_I can't talk, because Knock Out, Megatron's medic, took my voice box out. He disabled my internals too. And apparently he had also been order to change my energy signal…though I question if that is actually possible. Ratchet once said that that was so integral a part of a bot it can't be changed without changing the bot…ok moving on, cause I don't want to think about that._

_The second thing you need to know is that the Autobot leader seems to have lost his memories. Reason I know this is because, you are him. No, I am not joking. You are actually *__**Optimus Prime***__, have been for a very long time, but you apparently lost your memories when you kicked Unicron's aft using the Matrix's energy. Dunno how we'll fix that, but I am completely serious here. Look it up in the archives on that computer, I'm sure it is there somewhere. Possibly heavily encrypted though. But I know you can break those, you always come through in the end. Or maybe I'm just biased because you are like an older brother to me, but I believe in you. The others believe in you too…_

The message ended there and left Orion more than a little confused. Him? A Prime? And what was this about kicking Unicron's aft? Unicron was defeated centuries ago, long before he ever came into being. Either she was lying, trying to turn him against Megatron, or Megatron was lying and using him against the Autobots.

"There's one way to find out," Orion said and set to work on the computer, looking up the Decepticon archives.

He typed in commands to do a search for the name "Optimus Prime" and when a file came up he was surprised. He read the file, finding that Optimus Prime was the leader of the Autobots.

"But Megatron said Ratchet was the Autobot leader," Orion said to himself. "And Amelia claims that I am this Optimus…Someone is not tell the truth."

He looked at the information again, using his skills from his days as a data clerk on Cybertron to analyze it for any falsities. What he found confused him and made him suspect that it was not the femme who was lying to him. The files were very heavily encrypted, but he failed to understand why they would be. So he set to work unencrypting the one on this Optimus, to find what he was not seeing. The picture on the screen began to change, pixelating and the pixels moved about until it finally settled down on a shocking sight.

"How could I possibly be, Optimus Prime?" Orion asked himself, staring at the picture that looked exactly like him.

**~Amelia's PoV~**

I could feel my door wings droop as the Vehicons led me out of the lab where Orion worked. There goes my chance at saving one of my closest friends from a life serving Megatron…or turning into scrap. I couldn't help the feeling of failure as I was led through the corridors. Shoved was a better term actually.

"Come on move it!" the Vehicon behind me shoved me roughly from behind, causing me to stumbled forward.

I turned back and glared at the Vehicon, letting a low growl escape me in warning. If this mech shoved me one more time, I was gonna whack him with the nearest object. My growling, unfortunately, had a very negative affect on the mech and instead of merely glaring and commanding me to move again, he swiped at me with his clawed hands, catching me on my face.

"Autobot scum," the Vehicon said.

I glared at him defiantly, deciding that if that was how he was gonna be, I'd stop walking entirely. So I did just that, while trying to get my hands free from the binders they had put on them. This, of course, infuriated both Cons and the second one shoved me forward.

"Move it, femme!" he said.

In response, I defiantly sat down, not budging an inch. That was about the worst course of action I could've taken. It was great defying bad guys and all, but I really should've considered the option of running first. I say that, because the next thing I was aware of was pain in my chest. It took me a moment after falling backward from the hit that the Con had kicked me really hard.

"You want to play that game, huh?" the Con said menacingly. "Well we have our own games we like to play."

With my servos bound, I couldn't do much to defend myself as the Cons started kicking and punching me. They didn't pull out any weapons, but they didn't need to in order to make their point. Every blow felt like a car hitting me, which in hindsight is a pretty accurate analogy. And they kept at it too, non-stop. I tried to kick out at them with my legs in a feeble attempt to defend myself, but that was quickly quenched when one of them took out a blade of some kind and sliced a gash into my right leg. I yelped in pain, instinctively pulling my legs into myself and curling into a defensive ball as much as possible. I closed my optics, preparing for the worst when a sound very welcomed reached my audios.

"Enough!" Orion Pax's voice wafted through the corridor. "What are you doing?"

"What do you care?" one of the Vehicons asked.

There was silence a moment, during which I tried to move into a better position to find out what exactly was going on. The attempt sent pain through my leg, however, and I only managed to cause myself to whimper in pain. I felt Orion's optics on me briefly before he must've turned back to the Cons.

"Enough of this," he said. "You said Megatron wanted to see her."

"She needed to be taught a lesson," one of them said.

"Well, I'm afraid, it stops here," Orion said.

I spaced out for a moment, getting vaguely reminded of the Optimus that I had met by the tone he spoke in when he said that. When I became aware of the sounds again, I heard the sound of punching and kicking before blaster fire.

"I am armed?" Orion's confused voice had me opening my optics just in time to see him fire another shot in defense.

I let out a whine, to try to get his attention. He looked over at me before turning his attention back to the fallen Cons. When his attention returned to me, he easily saw the Energon leaking from my leg. He stood and walked over, crouching down behind me and I felt him remove the binders, which I was thankful for as I immediately sat up with a groan. I could feel almost every dent the two Cons had pounded into me and it hurt like I had been hit by a train. One of my door wings felt like it was half way off its connection.

"Can you stand?" Orion asked, kneeling next to me.

_One way to find out,_ I thought as I tentatively nodded. I managed to get to my pedes with Orion's help and he began leading me the opposite way from which I had been going with the Cons. Orion supported me, since I was limping heavily with the wound on my leg.

"We need to find a way out of here," Orion said, though it sounded more to himself than to me.

I made a whirl of agreement.


	26. Making Things Right

**A/N: **Yay! Update! Haha! And next chapter is the chapter I mentioned before. The chapter that crosses with Sci's story, so it won't be posted until we BOTH have it written for our respective stories. :) I do hope you all will enjoy it as we have both been working really hard. :D

**Author's Replies:**

**Luna Prime- Awesomeness: **Don't die from suspense! Don't die! Prayers have been and are still being sent.

**pokemonjkl: **Thanks!

**Mercedes Wolfcry: **Well, you would be a bit different too if you didn't have a voice… Hehe, but she is the same at spark!

**Sci-Fifan95: **Of course I did! Who wants ol' Megsy to win? No one. Lol. You'll find out by reading. :)

**Jayna Prime: **Hehe. Glad you liked it sis.

**GalaxyWarrioress1234: **Yes, I found that funny as well. Hehe. Hence why I used it! :D Indeed she will, indeed she will.

**Sailor Shinzo: **Yup, those are all good things. :) Tables have turned indeed. Megatron definitely did not make good choices there. ;P

**Jazz-Transformers: ***cheers with him* Wait…I'm not supposed to be in the cheering section…oh well! *continues cheering* XD

**ilikeanimeandmange: **Well, read and find out! Hehe :D

**Vivian Hale: **Thanks! And yes, that was a good call. It doesn't follow it exactly, but there are enough similarities to say there are spoilers. I am glad you have enjoyed it! BTW what happened to Jazz? I thought he was with ya. Lol ;)

Alrighty! Now that A/Rs are done, on with the chapter! Read on my dear viewers, read on! Hehe Sorry, I have had too much caffeine today….Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

**Chapter 26: Making Things Right…**

**~The Nemesis, Amelia's PoV~**

I have come to the conclusion that most Cons are shoot first, ask questions later. Several things had led me to come to this conclusion during my time on the Nemesis with Orion. First, they took my voice box and then on top of that they lied to Orion about it. And then those two beat me up real bad. Granted I was giving them a difficult time, but they were shoving me and being rough before then. They definitely went overboard. I should've slagged them before they had cuffed me, but I had been hesitant. The next reason was that Orion and I were currently trying to get to the Con's Ground Bridge, but we were pinned down by a group of Cons shooting at us.

"We need to get past them," Orion said, peering out from behind our hiding place, but quickly ducking back down, careful not to get too close to my injured leg.

I released an irritated breath, which caused Orion to look at me. I pulled my Energon Battle Pistol out of my back plates and checked the ammo. I could see Orion's confusion.

"You are a sniper?" he asked.

I shook my head in the negative and my good wing took a downward tilt. I actually sucked with this weapon, I had no idea what Primus was thinking giving it to me as one of my built-in weapons. However, it would come in handy now if I could hit anything. I motioned with my hands, asking him how many there were. He peered back over and I had the sense that he was counting.

"There are eight, and no doubt more on their way," Orion reported when he crouched down again.

I nodded in understanding. I shifted, rolling over my left side to avoid hurting my wounded one any more than necessary. I grunted a little when pain shot through my leg at my movement. I settled down half on my side and leaning against our makeshift barrier, resting the barrel of the Pistol on it as I tried to take aim. I could hear Orion activate his Blasters and provide me with cover fire, keeping the Con from advancing any further.

Taking a chance, I looked through the scope, keeping the weapon as steady as I could in my awkward position. I aimed it at the nearest Con and pulled the trigger. My shot surprisingly hit right on target, taking out the Con with a headshot. I didn't take the time to feel bad about the loss of life or feel good about my success with a weapon I usually stunk at using. I moved to take aim at another Con, noting as a couple fell under Orion's fire as I tried to get a good shot on this second Con. He kept moving, though, which made it hard. I fired and missed a couple times, but my third shot grazed his side. He stumbled and I took another shot, this time getting him in the chest and he fell. Orion's fire took down a couple more and I was able to down the last two in a total of four shots.

Orion ceased fire at the same time that I sighed and let my head drop, resting my forehead on the barrier. I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up to find Orion looking at me in concern. I sighed a bit, but let him help me to my feet as I placed my Battle Pistol back in its place. We made our way toward the Ground Bridge controls and when we reached them, I typed in some commands into the console. The Ground Bridge opened and I looked over at the door, praying no Cons showed up until we were long gone. Fortunately, we were lucky and were able to disappear through the Ground Bridge before anymore Cons showed up.

On the other side we came out just outside a cave in the middle of a desert. It wasn't the same desert the base was in, I didn't want to risk the Cons finding it, but it wasn't exactly an unfamiliar desert either. I had chosen the place where my first scouting mission had taken me, when we had discovered my ability to smell Energon.

"Where are we?" Orion asked, helping me to sit on a small boulder so I could get off my wounded leg.

I merely gave him a look since I couldn't speak to actually give him an answer.

"Sorry," he apologized. He sat down on a slightly larger boulder across from mine and we waited.

I sighed and grabbed a stick from the ground. I rested my helm in a hand as I used my other one to draw in the sand with the stick. I drew smileys on the ground, like those you use in chats on the computer. I even drew one of a smiley playing video games. When I got bored of smileys, I began drawing random phrases into the ground, in English since it was easier for me. I wrote the Autobot motto and the creed as well, before writing random Star Wars quotes. I was quite obviously bored, but I didn't really know what else to do.

I sighed, hoping that someone would show up soon and that that someone was an Autobot and not a Con, especially considering we just ran from the Cons.

"So," Orion broke the silence after a while and I looked up at him curiously. "You said something about Optimus Prime?"

My good door wing perked a little and I sat up a little straighter. I nodded and pointed my stick at him.

"Are you…sure about that?" Orion asked, sounding very unsure about if I was telling the truth.

I nodded enthusiastically. I even wrote in the sand "Optimus Prime=You" with an arrow pointing toward Orion.

"But I don't understand, when did that happen?" Orion asked.

I wrote more words in the sand. "Beginning of the war I believe. Or at least, that's what I've gathered from the datapads in the Autobot's library. I'm rather new to the whole thing."

"I still do not believe that I could be a Prime," Orion said.

"You are," I wrote. "There is one thing I don't get about the whole thing though…"

"What is that?" Orion asked.

"When we were fighting Unicron," I wrote. "He didn't only refer to you as a Prime. He also kept referring to me as a Prime."

Orion looked surprised.

"I know, right?" I wrote. "It's weird. There is no way that is possible. Not with my story."

"And what is your story?" Orion asked.

"A long one," was all I wrote before we were interrupted by the sound of engines.

We both went on immediate alert and I dropped my stick to the ground before activating my Ion Blasters as Orion activated his own, moving to place himself between me and whoever was coming up. However, when the familiar silver vehicle followed by an equally familiar red vehicle and a vehicle I did not recognize came into view, I lowered my weapons and made a surprised, yet pleased, chirp. Orion looked back at me as I deactivated my weapons and then followed suit, taking a step back as the vehicles drove up and transformed into two familiar and one not familiar form.

"Jazz?" Orion asked, sounding surprised.

"Hey OP," Jazz said cheerily. "Glad we found ya. Doc bot said you two had been missin' for a coupl' a weeks."

"We also heard you lost your memories," Ironhide said.

"If what I've heard is true, then I have," Orion said. "I still do not believe it though."

Jazz looked back at me and his expression grew more serious when he saw my state. "Primus, Amelia," he said, moving to my side in a spark beat. "What the slag happened?"

I merely gave him a look before my good door wing drooped and I whirled something.

"What happened to your voice?" Ironhide asked.

"Megatron took it," Orion answered for me. I was relieved he at least believed part of what I had told him.

Ironhide's engine revved, as did Jazz's and I flinched a little from the clear show of anger.

"Calm down," the unfamiliar mech said. "You are making the femme nervous."

I looked at the mech questioningly as the two mechs calmed themselves and looked at me in concern.

"My name is Prowl," the mech introduced himself, seeing the question in my optics.

"Come on," Ironhide said, helping me to my pedes. "Let's get you two to base so Ratchet can have a look see to see what he can do about all this."

Orion nodded as Prowl spoke into his comm. Moments later a Ground Bridge appeared and we all walked through it, heading for the safe confines of the silo. On the other side we were met by the familiar sight of the ops center of the Autobot base and I released and a relieved sigh, causing Ironhide to chuckle slightly. The first thing I noticed were the bots that I didn't recognize milled about with the familiar faces. There were two femmes that I was pretty certain I could guess who they were, since they were speaking animatedly with Arcee and shared much of the same features. One of them was red and the other was a slightly different shade of blue from Arcee. There was a smaller femme as well, talking quietly with Bumblebee and Raf.

Before I could take in anymore of the new bots, I was interrupted by Ratchet ordering us to the med bay to take a look at my injuries and check on Orion. A few kliks later, I was sitting on the familiar berth I usually took while in the med bay, Orion was sitting on the one next to mine. Bulkhead, Ironhide, Bumblebee, Arcee, her sisters, Prowl, an unfamiliar red and white mech, and the humans were all in here as well, the humans each perched on a bot for a better view. They watched silently as Ratchet ran a scan over me.

"Hmph," Ratchet said, clearly agitated by something.

"What's wrong?" Arcee asked.

"Her voice box isn't merely damaged," Ratchet said, standing up straight. His engine revved a bit. "It is missing."

Bee whirled something.

"You mean that slagger took it?" Ironhide asked, clearly upset at this.

"Since when is Megatron collecting spare parts?" Bulkhead asked.

Ratchet shook his head. "The more likely explanation would be to prevent her from telling Orion about the truth," he said. "That he is, in fact, Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots." He glanced over at Orion, who still didn't look convinced, but he nodded anyway.

"You can build her a new one, can't you?" Miko piped up and I looked at Ratchet for an answer.

"Miko, the voice box is a bio mechanism, not merely a scrap yard find," Ratchet said. "If it were that simple, don't you think I would have done so for Bumblebee by now?"

I made a disappointed noise and dropped my head into my hands. I didn't want to be voiceless. I was not used to it the way Bumblebee was. I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up to see Bee giving me a comforting look. Everyone actually had a similar look on their faces.

"What if we could get it back?" the red femme asked.

"If Megatron did not destroy it when he removed it, it would simply be a matter of putting it back where it belongs," Ratchet said.

My good door wing perked up and I looked up at Ratchet. He looked at me a moment before realizing why that made me perk up. As far as I knew, my missing part was still in one piece. Ratchet nodded, turning the other bots, who had also picked up on my reaction to that news.

"So all we gotta do is get it back," Ironhide said.

"But you guys don't know where the Nemesis is, do you?" Jack asked.

"No, but we can still search," Arcee said. She placed a hand on my shoulder. "Don't worry Amelia, we'll get your voice box back. We know how you love talking."

I let out an amused noise at her lighthearted words as I smiled in gratitude.

"Alright, now out, all of you," Ratchet said. "I have work to do."

"Wait," Jack said suddenly. "Hey OP. I dunno if it means anything to you now, but…" he reached into his back pocket and took out the key Optimus had given to him before leaving to face Unicron, "…you left this with me and told me to give it back to you when you returned."

There was shocked silence as we all stared at the object Jack was holding.

"The Key to Vector Sigma?" Orion broke the silence after a few kliks.

"What's that?" Raf asked.

"One of the two most powerful Cybertronian artifacts," Ratchet said. "It grants access to Vector Sigma."

"What's Vector Sigma?" Miko asked.

"It's the repository of the wisdom of the Primes," the red femme explained.

"So, is that some kind of super computer?" Raf asked.

"Which one's the big V?" Jack asked.

"Vector Sigma is more than a super computer, Jack," Ratchet said.

"It is an ancient source of mystical power," Orion put in.

"On Cybertron," Ratchet said.

"Wow, even without his memories, OP's still giving part of Ratchet's sentences," Miko said, sounding amused.

"We've been friends for a long time, Miko," Ratchet noted.

I made a whirling sound that only seemed to have Bee chuckling. He then whirred and beeped, repeating my words in his more understandable chirps. "Good friends tend to do that." The others all smiled at that.

"So, if we went to Cybertron and to Vector Sigma," Jack said. "We can get Opti…Orion's memories, right? Along with the Matrix?"

Ratchet nodded. "But first we would need access to a Space Bridge," he said. "Which, unfortunately, we do not have." His tone was regretful as he said that last part.

Ratchet and the unfamiliar mech shooed everybot out that wasn't either me or Orion. Ratchet ordered the mech, who was apparently First Aid, to check over Orion for any injuries he may have sustained during our escape from the Nemesis before turning to me.

"Now, I'm gonna need to put you in stasis so I can repair all of the damage done to you," Ratchet said.

I nodded in understanding and, though I tensed when he prepared a needle with the needed sedative, I behaved, knowing he was only helping. He had me lay down before he administered the sedative into my systems. As I drifted off into a sedative induced stasis, I was only vaguely aware of the mech called First Aid speaking with Orion about something, likely what happened during our time on the Nemesis.

**~Several Hours Later, Normal PoV~**

Ratchet sighed a bit as he looked at the monitor. It was nighttime now and he had left First Aid to keep an optic on both of his patients while he monitored the computer for any signs of the Decepticon Space Bridge or the Nemesis. If he could find one, he was certain he could find the other as well. It was just a matter of finding one of the two.

The familiar sound of Bumblebee's chirping and beeping brought his attention away from the console and Ratchet turned to see the scout and Ironhide walking up.

"No, Bumblebee, I have not located them yet," Ratchet said. "I will though. Rest assured, I will not fail Amelia as I did you."

Bumblebee whirred.

"Bee's right, Ratch'," Ironhide said. "It wasn't your fault Megatron destroyed his voice box beyond repair. You did the best you could."

Ratchet sighed. "And still it wasn't good enough," he said, regret clear in his voice.

Bumblebee beeped and chirped, waving his hands around a little.

"I hope you're right Bumblebee," Ratchet said.

A beeping interrupted their short conversation. All three turned to the screen as an icon flashed and an image appeared of the Nemesis.

"Looks like we found them," Ironhide said.

Bumblebee whirled.

"No, Bee, we need you to stay here and run the Ground Bridge," Ratchet said. "This is something I must do."

Ironhide grinned, knowing exactly why Ratchet felt he must be on the team to retrieve Amelia's voice box. Bumblebee chirped, disappointed, but also understanding, though he only understood part of it.

"Power it up Bee, we got some Cons to fry," Ironhide said.

Bumblebee complied and the other two mechs shortly disappeared through the Ground Bridge.

"We must be careful," Ratchet said. "We need to find the medical lab, it is most likely where we will find Amelia's missing voice box."

Ironhide nodded, activating his cannons. The two cautiously moved through the corridors, avoiding the patrols walking by every now and then. They heard a couple of the Cons wondering out loud where Megatron had gone, so they were thankful that it appeared that the twisted mech himself wasn't home. It didn't actually take them long to find the med bay and the quickly entered it, startling the mech inside.

"What the?" Knock Out said, backing up at the anger in the two mechs' optics. "How'd you get in here?"

"That's none of your concern, Con," Ironhide said, pointing his cannons at the red mech.

"You took something from my femme," Ratchet said. "Where is it?"

"Your what?" Knock Out asked.

Ratchet growled, getting in the mech's face as he put one of his surgical saws to the Con medic's throat. "Amelia's voice box," he said. "I won't ask again."

"It's in my safe," Knock Out said, holding one hand up in surrender while he pointed with his other. "If you lower your weapon, I'll get it for you."

"Not likely," Ratchet said. "Ironhide."

"On it, Ratch'," Ironhide said. He walked over to the safe and shot the lock off, causing it to simply swing open slightly.

As Ratchet kept the Con immobile, holding himself back from simply offlining the Con for hurting Amelia, Ironhide entered the safe and looked around. A few kliks later, the red Autobot exited with Amelia's voice box in hand.

"There you have it," Knock Out said. "Now I suggest you leave before I call reinforcements."

"Not yet," Ratchet said, his optics gaining a little red in them. "You took something of Amelia's. So we're gonna take something of yours."

"How about his voice box?" Ironhide suggested, grinning slightly. He was no more happier with the mech than Ratchet was. "Seems like a fair trade."

"No, no I'll tell you anything you want," Knock Out said. "Please don't hurt me. I'll tell you the location of the Space Bridge! I'll even make sure it's clear for you to use!"

Ratchet paused, the red receding from his optics as he looked over at Ironhide. The red mech nodded. This would give them a tactical advantage and was worth leaving the mech intact.

"We're listening," Ratchet said. He didn't trust that Knock Out would really make sure their coast was clear for them, but he could at least give them the coordinates.

After securing the coordinates from the mech, Ironhide called for a Ground Bridge while Ratchet gave the mech a little punishment for hurting his femme. That punishment included one simply thing, a screwed up paint job. Ratchet knew the mech was very vain, so he knew the best punishment he could give him was cover his paint in scratches, so that's what he did before following Ironhide through the Ground Bridge.

**~The Next Day, Amelia's PoV~**

I woke up slowly, stretching out and feeling glad that everything on me felt better. I yawned as I stretched, only opening an optic when I heard footsteps approach. I found Ratchet coming near, a surprisingly soft look on his face plates, though it was quickly replaced by his usual calm and professional look.

"How are you feeling?" Ratchet asked.

"Good," I said without thinking, then I paused. "Wait…didn't I lose my voice?"

"We were able to retrieve your voice box last night, while you were in recharge," Ratchet said, typing something into a data pad.

"Oh," I said, tilting my helm as I sat up on the berth. "So…"

"You are confined to med bay for a week," Ratchet said. "I do not want you straining yourself, especially your left door wing."

"Oh," I said, looking over at my left door wing. It twitched slightly with my waking up process and I noticed something I had never noticed before. I looked over at the other one and consciously moved just it up and down. I then looked to Ratchet, perplexed. "Is it just me, or does the shade of the purple change?"

Ratchet chuckled slightly. "It's not just you," he said. "I'm surprised you never noticed until now. Your optics have the same trait."

I blinked at him. "Well, it's not like I look in a mirror…" I said. "I'm like the opposite of vain…It's interesting though…"

Ratchet shook his head at me. "I will be going on a mission with many of the others," Ratchet said. "First Aid will be here if you need anything, as will Moonracer and Elita-1."

"Who are they?" I asked. "And where are you going?"

"First Aid is the other red and white mech, he should be here any minute now," Ratchet said. "Moonracer is a sniper, her armor is green and white. Elita is the red femme…"

"Arcee's sister," I finished. "She told me about her and Chromia a while back." I added at Ratchet's slightly startled expression. "So I take it the blue one is Chromia?"

Ratchet nodded. "You will have time to meet all of the new arrivals when we return with the key to Orion's memories," he said.

I nodded and Ratchet gave me one last nod before turning to leave.

"Ratchet," I said, causing him to pause and turn an audio my way. "Be careful."

"I will," Ratchet promised.

Ratchet left then, just as First Aid walked in, leaving it just Orion, me and the new med bot, who was looking at the data pad that Ratchet had handed him as they passed each other. I watched him a little warily as he walked by, seemingly oblivious to my attention. He sat down at the desk, buried in the data pad he was reading, seemingly oblivious to everything else. I rolled my optics at him before turning to find Orion staring off into space.

"Hey, OP," I said, getting his attention. He looked up.

"Amelia," he greeted in return.

Before our conversation could really begin, a red femme walked in, a smaller femme in her arms. Judging by the wings on the smaller, she was of a flying build. The red femme I knew to be Elita-1 from Ratchet, but I did not know about the purple and yellow femmeling in her arms.

"Good morning," I said cheerily to the newcomers. Elita smiled while the femmeling giggled.

"I see you are feeling better," Elita said.

"Very much," I agreed. "I can speak again and everything." I grinned, which left Elita chuckling slightly. "I'm Amelia, by the way."

"Elita-1," Elita said. "But you can call me Elita for short."

I smiled, even as I noticed the way Orion was looking at Elita, recalling that he had said she was very special to him when we had first come across the message. I held back a giggle at the thought.

"Can you put me down on the berth with Amelia, 'Lita?" the femmeling asked.

"If she doesn't mind," Elita said, looking at me.

I smiled. "Not at all," I said. "Go ahead. We can play a game to pass the time. I'm stuck in here anyway."

The femmeling giggled and Elita set her on the berth and I turned and crossed my legs, facing the femmeling. The youngling sat the same way, facing me, as Elita took a seat next to Orion and the two simply watched my and the youngling interact.

"So who am I talking to, anyway?" I asked the youngling with a smile on my face.

"I'm Lunarfire!" the femmeling said. "But 'Lita and 'Mia often call me 'Fire for short."

"That is a sweet name," I noted. "Fits too."

"Thanks!" Lunarfire said cheerfully. She stared at me for a moment. "Your optics keep changing shade. And so do your wings."

"Lunarfire, don't be rude," Elita admonished.

Lunarfire's expression fell. "I'm sorry," she said.

I chuckled. "It's quite alright," I said. "I like blunt honesty in a bot. Means you can trust 'em. Besides, I'm aware it must be kinda strange."

"Yeah," Lunarfire giggled. "It's pretty though."

"Aw, thanks," I said. "You're sweet."

"Oh," she said, covering her face plates in a show of embarrassment.

I chuckled a little, my optics sparkling with my laughter.

Then, suddenly she perked up. She looked over to Elita and Orion. "Can Amelia and I play hide-and-seek?" she asked.

"Sweetie, I dunno if Amelia is up to it," Elita said. "She's recovering from some injuries."

"It's ok, I can play," I said, emphasizing by getting off the berth and standing. I flinched a little as pain flared in my right leg. "Maybe not…" I sat back down.

"Aw," Lunarfire said as Elita chuckled a little at my attempt to get up and do something for the little one.

"I'm sorry," I apologized as I positioned myself how I was before trying to get up.

"It's ok," Lunarfire said. "It's not your fault. It's those nasty Cons."

I chuckled slightly, raising an optic ridge. "Indeed," I said. I thought for a moment. "I know some games we could play sitting down."

"Really?" Lunarfire asked, looking excited at the prospect.

"Yup, here, I'll teach ya," I said. "There's a game called Patty Cake, that's basically making rhythms by clapping your hands together, on your legs and basically high-fiving your partner. It's a game humans play when they have time to pass."

"Cool!" Lunarfire said.

I spent the next few hours teaching Lunarfire how to play Patty Cake while Elita and Orion watched in amusement. We failed several times over at completing the game and I nearly fell off the berth a couple times when I missed high-fiving the little femmeling. By the time we finally completed the game, we were a couple lumps of giggling metal and it took us a few kliks to calm down enough to move on to another game.

"Alright, here's another, it's called the Hokey Pokey," I said.

"How do you play?" Lunarfire asked.

"Easy, the space in between us is what is called 'in'," I said. "You basically do what the words of the song tell you to do."

"Ok," Lunarfire said. "Let's play it!"

"Alright, I'll start in one second, ready?" I said and she nodded. I put my right arm in the middle as I sang the first part, Lunarfire copying my movements. "You put your right arm in, you take your right arm out, you put your right arm in and you shake it all about, you do the hokey pokey and turn yourself about, that's what it's all about!" I danced a little jig at the last part and Lunarfire burst into giggles.

"This one looks fun," Elita said. "I think I'll join in."

"The more the merrier!" I said. "What about you OP?"

"Nah, I'm quite alright watching," Orion said.

I shrugged. "Suite yourself," I said. I looked over at First Aid. "Hey Aid! Come join us for the Hokey Pokey!"

First Aid looked like I had startled him with my sudden words directed at him. He looked over at us then back down at the data pad. He then looked back up at us and shrugged as he stood. He walked over, apparently having decided that it couldn't hurt.

"How do you play?" First Aid asked.

I explained it again and then we started playing, the three non-injured parties standing as you were supposed to while I remained sitting. It was quite fun and eventually Elita got Orion to join in and we spent the next several hours doing the Hokey Pokey and laughing our processors off at how silly we all looked. I figure it must've been quite a sight for everybot else when they returned from their mission to find the med bay overrun by dancing bots. Ratchet was at least pleased that I hadn't danced on my bad pede.

When we all stopped, I found that I had worn myself quite out and so had Lunarfire, climbed into my nap and fell promptly into recharge. We all looked at the youngling with various expressions of 'aw how cute', 'adorable' and the simple smile. I wasn't too far behind the femmeling in falling into recharge.


	27. Discoveries

**A/N: **Wow, 11,144 words later and the chapter is complete. I will tell you right now, the odds of me having a chapter this long again are not too terribly high. But it is awesome.

Reminder: This chapter is co-op with Sci-Fifan95 and is crossed with his story, Fate Calls. Shadowstreaker, is his character, all credit goes to him for that. Since this is a co-op, he also gets credit for the chapter same as me. Neither of us own Transformers though, sadly.

I'm not gonna do author's replies this chapter, cause my wrists and hands hurt and I don't want to take longer to post this chapter than necessary. And there are so many…if I tried that it wouldn't get posted now. I think I've hit a record for how many reviews I get on one chapter. Which is awesome.

And now! The awesomeness that is a co-op chapter.

**Chapter 27: Discoveries**

**~Autobot Base, Amelia's PoV~**

The first thing I was aware of when I onlined the next morning was that there was the lack of something curled against my side. If I remembered right, there had been a young femmeling that had fallen into recharge in my lap. Instead of going into freak-out-mode, as she was probably with one of the others, I simply stretched out, yawning. I was midway into my morning stretch when Ratchet walked over.

"Hey Ratch'," I said, still stretching, but having one optic open now. "G'mornin'."

"Good morning," Ratchet replied. "How are you feeling?"

"I feel fine," I said. I shifted into a sitting position, flinching slightly in discomfort at the soreness in my body. "Still sore though."

"You took quite a beating the other day," Ratchet said. "If what Optimus said has any indication."

"Yeah…wait," I said, pausing when I realized something. "You said Optimus. Did you get his memories back?"

Ratchet nodded. "Yes, we have our leader back one hundred percent now," he said. "Though Lunarfire has been keeping him and Elita busy."

I couldn't stop the giggle at the mental image of Optimus chasing around a hyper youngling. "Really?" I asked, amusement clear in my voice. I was also assaulted with a mental image of yesterday's game of the Hokey Pokey and grinned. Who knew the Prime could have fun?

"Yes," Ratchet said. "The femmeling seems to have adopted the two of them as her adopted creators. Not surprising as they were the ones who discovered her in the Well of AllSparks centuries ago."

I paused there. "Wait…_centuries_?" I asked, jaw hanging wide open. "But she's only a youngling! _Centuries_?"

"Yes, centuries," Ratchet said. "You forget, Cybertronians live a lot longer than humans. She is just entering her youngling stage."

"Wow," I said, still in awe by the lengthy life span of Cybertronians. "So, ah, do we know how old I am? Technically speaking…"

"Hmm," Ratchet said. "By all accounts, you're barely out of younglinghood. You are an adult, though perhaps you don't always act like one."

I giggled a little. "Sorry Ratch'!" I said cheerily. "But we gotta have some fun in our lives." I grinned. "I just want to keep our spirits up."

A small smile appeared on Ratchet's face before it quickly disappeared. "I know," he said. "Now, I am going to go teach First Aid a few things, I'll be back later on."

"Ok," I said.

Ratchet walked off, leaving me to my own devices. I spent a couple minutes looking back at my door wings as I moved them up and down. Since discovering the fact that they change shade with movement, I found them quite fascinating. After a few kliks I decided that I was too easily amused and moved on to think of something else to do, as that was making my left door wing hurt a little. Fortunately my dilemma was solved when the med bay doors opened and Arcee walked in with her sisters, Lunarfire and the smaller femme that I had seen talking to Bumblebee when I first got back.

"Hey!" I said, waving happily as my door wings perked up. I minutely flinched from the small pain that sent from my still healing wing.

"Hey," Arcee said as they approached. "How are you feeling?"

"Still sore, but other than that, I'm good," I said. "Kinda bored though."

"We figured you would be," the second blue femme, who I had figured out was Chromia, said, looking amused.

"I thought you could meet my sisters, as well as our old charge," Arcee said. "You've met Elita and Lunarfire."

I nodded, smiling and waving at the familiar femmes, who both smiled, though Lunarfire also giggled.

"This is Chromia," Arcee introduced her second sister. I waved to her as well. "And our old charge, Flare-up."

"Nice to meet ya," I said, noting with concern that Flare-up wasn't smiling at all. I frowned at her and tilted my head.

She seemed to grow self-conscious with my attention and shifted on her feet before saying a snappy "What?"

"You look sad," I said.

"I'm fine," Flare-up said, her defenses going down.

"She's having a rough time right now," Chromia told me.

"Really? Rough times are rough," I said, causing the orange and red femme to smile slightly. "Wanna talk about it?"

"Um," she looked up at the older femmes.

"We'll go talk to Ratchet if you want us to if you do," Elita told Flare-up.

Flare-up nodded and the older femmes left to talk to Ratchet, taking Lunarfire with them. Flare-up watched them go for a moment before leaning slightly against my berth as I sat cross-legged, facing her side.

"So," I said once the others were out of hearing range. "What's got your expression so down?"

"Well, it's Bumblebee actually," Flare-up said.

"Bee?" I asked. "Is something wrong with him?"

"No," Flare-up said. She sighed deeply. "I just…I think I might love him, but I don't think he could ever like me."

"Ah," I said, becoming slightly amused. "Trouble in romanceville, huh?"

She gave me an odd look before chuckling lightly and nodding.

I chuckled a little. "Well, considering we just met, there's probably not a lot I can do to reassure you," I said. "But you do seem like a good femme so far. And you are very pretty."

Flare-up looked embarrassed at my words, but remained silent.

"Give it time," I said. "You never know, he might surprise you." I grinned. "And then you'll just feel silly about having all these doubts."

"I suppose," Flare-up said.

"Hey, you never know," I said. "Take one day at a time and always appreciate what you got. Don't let the small things get you down. Everything will turn out the way it is supposed to in the end." As I spoke, I realized that my words applied to me as well, I was here because it was where I was supposed to be.

Flare-up finally brightened and smiled at me. "I guess you're right," she said. "Thanks."

I held my arms out. "Lemme give you a hug," I said.

She chuckled and moved to let me hug her. She hugged me back as well and a few kliks later, the other femmes returned, all smiling at us.

"Good to see you smile again, Flare," Chromia said.

Flare-up just smiled again and then we all spent the remainder of the day talking about random topics. Chromia and Flare-up both asked a lot of questions about what had happened to me since meeting the Bots. They were sympathetic when they heard I couldn't remember anything from before, but I merely shrugged it off.

"I've gotten used to it," I said. "It really doesn't bother me as much as it once did. My life is here now. That's good enough for me."

"I'm glad to hear you're finally moving on," Arcee said with a smile.

I nodded with a smile. "What's past is past," I said, quoting the words Daphne had said just after my transformation.

Elita nodded, agreeing with me.

They then told me stories from their travels since leaving Cybertron. I was listening with rapt attention and Lunarfire was also listening, as if she wasn't there. It made sense though, since she was a newborn sparkling when they had left their planet. The adventures they told me of were very interesting and exciting. There were several funny bits as well and by the time they were done telling me stories, my sides hurt from laughing with them so much.

At the end of the day, Ratchet shooed away my company, which by then included Jazz and a youngling named Bluestreak. Bluestreak was a talkative mech, always wanting to get a word in the conversation. He was a nice bot, though I got the impression he was hurting on the inside, though what gave me that impression I wasn't really sure. I think it was the small amount of hurt I could see in his optics occasionally despite the fact he was clearly trying to hide it.

"You should get some rest," Ratchet told me as soon as everybot else was gone.

"You should too," I said, looking at the mech and crossing my arms. "Everything is fine, Ratchet," I added when he just gave me a look. "Nothing is going to happen to me in my recharge. Everybot else is in perfect condition. You should go to your quarters and get some rest. I promise I will not leave this room and will get my own rest."

Ratchet sighed. "You, femme, can be a pain in my aft," he said, putting a datapad down on the work table nearby.

"Aw, but that's why you love me," I said teasingly. I was only joking, so I hadn't expected Ratchet to grow tense and become frozen in place once the words were out of my mouth. I looked at his back in concern. "Ratchet? You ok?"

"Perhaps you are right," Ratchet said and before I could say anything more, he stiffly left the med bay.

I tilted my head, watching as the door closed behind him. "Did I…say something?" I wondered to myself. Everything in me screamed to go after him and make sure he was alright, but I refrained from doing so. I did promise I wouldn't leave the med bay after all.

I sighed, and then curled up in my usual sleeping position, suddenly finding myself feeling very lonely at that moment. I sighed again, closing my optics and resting my door wings into a more relaxed position from where they had stiffened slightly when Ratchet had left so abruptly. I released yet another sigh before drifting off into recharge.

**~The Pocket Universe, Amelia's PoV~**

Vision was slow coming for me. My vision was a mass of blurred colors and I blinked several times trying to clear it.

_Wasn't I in recharge?_ I asked myself. _And why is my vision so blurry?_

I kept blinking, trying to get a fix on their focus so that I could see what was going on.

"I see why they named her Shadebreaker," a voice broke through my confused state and I turned to where it had come from, still blinking as I tried to focus my vision beyond the now gray lumps of blurriness.

When my vision finally cleared, I saw that I was looking at a large mech, who was only a few feet shorter than Optimus. I blinked once more, looking at the mech, perplexed. He was jet black in color and his optics were a different shade of blue than I was used to seeing in the Autobots. Oddly enough, he had wings on his back, which wouldn't have been too strange, but he also had wheels on his legs. This only served to make me even more perplexed. He was standing in a relaxed military-like pose, with his servos behind his back, and his expression was calm under my perplexed scrutiny.

"Hey…what's up?" the strange mech asked.

I opened my mouth to ask what was going on, and who this Shadebreaker was, when I noticed that there was a large femme standing next to him. She was significantly shorter than the mech I had noticed first, but she was still ridiculously tall compared to the femmes I knew back at base. Her armor was dark grey in color and her optics were blue, looking down at me with a kind expression.

There was another mech next to her, who stood taller than the femme and a tad bit shorter than the first mech still. His armor was gold and blue, a curious fact since I had not heard of a gold Transformer before, not unless it was before my time with the Autobots. His optics were just as kind as the femme's and the same shade of blue as well.

The next mech in line was much taller than all three of the others so far, standing over them easily. His armor was mostly red, but he had gold runes on his shoulders and gold around his blue optics. As with the other two after the first, his expression was kind and held a kind of wisdom that I knew I could only dream of having some day. He also had what appeared to be a long beard and mustache, which I found to be peculiar, but I tried not to think about peculiar things for the moment.

Next to that mech stood another mech, this one standing only minutely taller than the previous one. His armor was silver and his optics were blue and calm. His aura just screamed 'leader' and I knew from simply looking at him that he was very wise and likely powerful. One of the first things I noticed about him was that there was a vague semblance to him of Optimus, which had me wondering why that was. It also gave me the feeling that if needed, I could probably go to him for help. I moved on to the next mech I saw was standing next to him.

This mech was about the same height as Optimus and had light grey and black armor. On his chest was a circle that I could only describe as being a clock of some sort, though the way his armor was set around it, it did not look out of place or cause the mech to look odd. His optics were blue and held the same kindness and wisdom that the others held. However, his optics also held something else as well. Somehow, for some reason beyond me, there was a deeper care in those optics as they gazed back at me. I blinked a bit at him, getting a sense that I knew this mech from somewhere, but I couldn't begin to imagine where from.

The next, and final, mech I took notice of was only slightly taller than the femme had been. His armor was blue, gold and red, while his optics were the same blue as the others. Like the ones before him, his optics held a deep wisdom and were kind and non-threatening. His expression was a tad bit more serious than the others' were, but it was not unkind and it was a little reassuring that no one was glaring daggers at me. I looked back at the first one, the black one with both wings and wheels.

"Um…something tells me that this isn't a dream…" I said uncertainly. I shifted on my pedes a little as I gazed around at the mechs and femme surrounding me. I was vaguely aware that I was standing on some kind of platform, but I wasn't about to look down at it yet.

"No, this is not a dream, Amelia," the tallest one, the silver one, said. His voice strongly reminded me of Optimus. In fact he sounded just like him.

I looked at the mech curiously. It was hard to get a view on his face without straining my neck, so I settled for looking mostly up and then moving my optics to where I could see him better. Strangeness or not, I knew Ratchet wouldn't be happy to find I put more stress on my healing body than necessary.

"I know there are probably better questions I could ask right now, but why do you sound like Optimus Prime?" I asked, curious as to know the answer.

The mech looked amused. "Optimus Prime is my descendent," he said, his voice full of kindness. "No matter how many generations separate his creation from my own, he will inherit traits from me. Now let us introduce ourselves, I am Prima."

It took me a moment to run the name through my processor, feeling as if I had heard the name before. "Prima…? Wait…you're the Thirteen!" I said, but finding that I had no other words in my shocked awe. I gazed around at the other bots around me, a new found awe putting them in a different light in my processor. These were bots of legend! I couldn't really believe I was standing here and talking to them.

"Yes," the red mech standing next to Prima said, bringing my attention to him once more. "We are the Thirteen, what's left of them anyway. But not all of us are members of the Thirteen." When he said the last part, he turned slightly toward the black mech that had been the first one I had noticed.

The implications of this left me wondering who this strange mech was in that case. It would explain why he looked so different from the others, but it only made me all the more curious.

"Questions can wait for a few moments, Amelia. Please, allow my fellow Primes to introduce themselves to you," Prima said, at the same moment I had opened my mouth to ask who the mech was, if not one of the Thirteen.

I narrowed my optics at the mech for a moment. How had he known I was about to ask a question? Then again, I thought as I shrugged, these are the Thirteen. Why question it when one should expect the unexpected when it came to these guys? Well, Optimus had told me before to not put things off as impossible anyway. Instead, I gazed back at the red mech who stood next to Prima, the red one.

"My name is Alpha Trion, Amelia," he said with a slight nod.

_Alpha Trion? _I thought. _Optimus's mentor, Alpha Trion? He's one of the Thirteen? _As I blinked at the mech he looked slightly amused, almost as if he knew what I was thinking. I looked to the mech next to him, the one next to the femme Prime.

"My name is Megatronus Prime," he said, his expression calm and friendly.

"Megatronus?..." I asked, finding the name eerily familiar. I raked my processor for the reason why it sounded so familiar. Hadn't I read that name before….? Oh wait…

My optics widened when I recalled where I had heard the name before. I could feel my door wings arch back as I felt fear flood my systems. "You're The Fallen!" I exclaimed, and ran off the platform I was on, and took cover behind Prima's pedes. I didn't want to be in sight of the mech I had found creepy in my reading, even though the rush had hurt my pede slightly from where it was still healing. What if he decided to attack me?

"It seems I am doomed to be mistaken for The Fallen for the rest of my life," the mech I was hiding from said with a sigh.

I peeked out from behind Prima's pede, surprised that the mech wasn't complaining that I was basically using him as a shield. I held onto part of his armor to support myself so I wouldn't fall over as I leaned over, leaning to my left to avoid leaning on my injured pede.

"Um…" I said uncertainly. "Sorry?" My door wings twitched slightly as I ducked back behind Prima's pede as Megatronus looked over at me. His words confused me and made me question if I had had it right, but I thought it was still better to be safe than sorry.

"Amelia," Prima's kind voice had me looking up at the large mech. "Megatronus is not The Fallen, not anymore. You have nothing to fear from those around you, we would not have brought you here if you did have something to fear." His voice was firm and logical, but I could still catch the care that was in there. If this was Optimus's ancestor, I could see where he got it from.

Though reassured a bit by Prima's words, I couldn't help another wary glance at Megatronus, who appeared to be waiting patiently for his fellow Prime to calm me. I looked back up at Prima. "Are you sure?" I asked.

"Yes, Amelia, I am certain," Prima said. He looked down at me, his expression calm and caring. "Can you come out from behind my pede now?"

I gave another wary glance, but I trusted Prima's words. After all, he had no reason to lie to me. That I knew of at least. So I stepped out from behind his pede and made my way back to the small platform I had been standing on before. As I stepped back onto it, I noticed the runes covering it and wondered what they said. I stood on it once more and looked nervously at the mech who had been the source of my fright.

"Hi…?" I said uncertainly, giving a tentative wave. My right door wing twitched a little.

"I will take that over your previous reaction," Megatronus said with a smile.

I found a small smile on my face as I began to notice that the mech wasn't unpleasant. He wasn't attacking anyone at least. I looked at the femme. "Since you're the only other femme here, I'm guessing you're Solus Prime?" I asked, excited at the fact I was meeting the femme Prime. I thought it was amazing the she existed and I thought I could probably learn a lot from her, and the others.

"And you would be correct Amelia, and don't worry about Megatronus, I wouldn't have become his sparkmate if I didn't trust him," the femme said, smiling sweetly at me.

"Oh…that makes sense, I guess…" I said. I thought about that for a moment. Sparkmates were like married couples, right? Like Ironhide and Chromia. One wouldn't become sparkmate to someone they didn't trust, it wouldn't make sense. Why live your life looking over your shoulder in fear of one who was supposed to love you? And Megatronus _did_ seem like a nice enough mech so far.

I ducked my helm down a bit as my door wings drooped slightly. "Sorry I freaked out then…" I said quietly as I kicked at the sand beneath my pedes a bit, being careful not to jar my injured pede too hard.

To my surprise, Megatronus merely laughed. "Do not worry about that, your reaction was better than his was," he said, motioning with his helm to the black mech with wings and wheels.

I looked at the tall black mech curiously. "How did you react?" I asked.

Megatronus answered for him. "He tried to decapitate me," he said, his tone suggesting it was the most obvious thing in the world.

My door wings twitched a little as I looked over to the black mech again and tilted my helm slightly in thought. I wasn't sure whether or not I should be concerned that this mech had tried to decapitate Megatronus. But then I recalled that Alpha Trion had mentioned something about not being one of the Thirteen and my door wings lifted. He had obviously made the same mistake I had. Somehow, I suddenly found this amusing and had to stifle a laugh, though despite my efforts my mouth twitched into a small smile.

"I suppose I don't feel so bad then," I said amusedly, my door wings moving slightly, mirroring my emotions.

"To be fair, he did sneak up on me," the mech said in defense.

"Hmmm... I will give you that one my son," Megatronus said.

My door wings twitched slightly in my surprise as I looked at the black mech with wide optics. This mech was Megatronus's son? Which meant he was also Solus's. That would explain why Alpha Trion had indicated him when saying not all of them were members of the Thirteen. I blinked at the mech.

"You're…" I pointed toward Megatronus, "his son?"

"Yes, though there is a long story behind that. My name is Shadowstreaker, it is nice to meet you Amelia," the large mech said to me and gave a polite nod.

I gave a small, not-all-there wave as I continued to try to makes heads or tails of this new piece of information. If Shadowstreaker was related to the Thirteen then that left me the only one present without a connection. But then, why was I here? My processor whirled, trying to come to some kind of answer.

"Amelia?" a voice brought me out of my disorganized thoughts and I took a deep breath. "Are you alright?"

I looked up at the source of the voice, finding it had been Alpha Trion who had spoken. I nodded. "I'm just…having trouble wrapping my processor around all this," I said honestly. "It's a lot to take in…"

Prima smiled slightly. "That it is," he said. "And I am sure you and Shadowstreaker will have time to talk it out."

I tilted my helm a bit in confusion before glancing over at the black mech.

"That is an even longer story," Shadowstreaker said.

"Isn't it always?" I asked, a grin making its way onto my face as I straightened my helm.

"Now, we should get on with introductions," Prima said.

"I am Zeta Prime," the one with blue, red and gold mech introduced himself, bringing my attention around to him.

The last one to introduce himself was the one with the clock-like circle on his chest. His optics shone with happiness as he introduced himself. "And I am Vector Prime, Little One," he said with a trace amount of affection in his tone that had me curious.

"Now, do you have any questions for us?" Prima asked kindly, bringing my attention to the largest mech.

"Um," I said, door wings moving very slightly with my thought process. I was about to ask why I was there, but then remembered something Shadowstreaker had said when I had first arrived here.

I turned to the black mech. "You said earlier something about someone naming someone Shadebreaker…what did you mean by that?" I asked. I heard someone clear their throat and paused.

"Amelia," Vector's voice had me turning to him. He waved me over. "We need to have a talk. Privately?"

I hesitated and looked back to the black mech. He nodded at me and I turned my attention to Prima. The large silver mech smiled lightly and nodded.

"Go on, Little One," he encouraged.

Nervous and not knowing what to expect, I walked over to Vector Prime and allowed him to lead me away from the others. We moved quite a bit away from the others before either of us spoke. I didn't speak cause I was too afraid to, wondering if I had done something wrong. He didn't speak until we were far enough away from the others that I couldn't see them anymore.

"Amelia, there are some things you must know," Vector told me once we stopped in a small area with boulders.

My right door wing tilted sideways to show my curiosity. "Ok," I said, taking a seat on a small boulder to take my weight off my healing pede.

Vector smiled, though he remained standing. "The first among a few things is that you must know who Shadebreaker is," he said.

I tilted my helm and looked at him in interest, showing that he had my absolute attention.

"You see, Shadebreaker is my daughter, though I have not seen her for a very long time," Vector explained. He looked very saddened by this fact.

"I'm sorry," I said, feeling bad for him, but still feeling rather lost. "Why haven't you seen her?"

"Before I tell you that, I must tell you another story," Vector said. "Otherwise, it will not make sense."

I nodded slowly. Things making sense was a good thing. I could tell this gonna be a long talk, so I crossed my legs and leaned forward so I could rest my helm in my servos as my elbows rested on my knees. I looked up at Vector, completely prepared for a long story.

Vector chuckled a little at my antics before he began speaking again. "You recall Prima told you that Megatronus is no longer The Fallen," he said. At my confirming nod, he continued. "While Megatronus is the one who became The Fallen, when we trapped The Fallen in another reality, the two became separate beings. I will let the details of that story wait until we are back with the others."

I tilted my helm in thought as I took this information in. The Fallen was trapped in another reality. Megatronus was somebot completely different. And he was Solus Prime's sparkmate. So I really didn't have anything to fear from the mech. I nodded to show Vector that I understood so far.

He sighed, giving me a measuring look as I continued to look at him as I waited for him to continue. "This is the part where I really want you to listen," he said.

I removed a hand from holding my helm long enough to give a small salute in a "Yes sir" gesture.

He looked amused by this for a moment before he continued the story. "The reason why I haven't seen Shadebreaker in a long time, is that in an effort to protect her, my sparkmate and I sent her to another reality when she was born," Vector said.

His words confused me a bit. "What did you need to protect her from?" I asked as I tilted my helm.

"Well, at the time, there were some…fluxes in the boundaries between the realities of the multiverse," Vector said. "We were afraid that The Fallen would break free from the reality we trapped him in and take Shadebreaker away in revenge."

I nodded. "Seems like a valid fear," I said, recalling how bad guys were often ones to take revenge.

Vector smiled a little, looking more than a tad bit relieved. "In order to protect our sparkling," he continued to explain, "we took her before Primus. He changed Shadebreaker into a human and instructed us to place her in an alternate reality, one in which Cybertron was nothing but fiction."

My door wings twitched, recognizing the reality he spoke of as the one I had been in before coming across the Autobots. My hands dropped as I sat up straighter and looked at Vector curiously. "How is that possible?" I asked. "I mean, the whole disguising a Cybertronian as a human thing."

"How is it possible that you were human and now sit here as a full blown Cybertronian?" Vector shot back in amusement. It was easy to tell he was only joking with me.

I chuckled and shook my head. "Many would say it's not," I said.

"Perhaps," Vector agreed. "If you allow me to continue, perhaps you will understand more about that."

I tilted my helm again, wondering how this story of Shadebreaker could explain my situation. "Ok…" I said slowly, a little confused again.

"You see, Shadebreaker spent many years as a human, growing up with a human family as I watched over her from here once I arrived," Vector said. "She had it rough, but she got a reprieve when the same artifact that kept her human brought her to her home reality. When she returned, she met the Autobots on Earth and has been with them ever since."

I paused and looked at Vector in confusion. I suddenly had a very strong suspicion on who Shadebreaker was. I felt my door wings twitch again with my thoughts. "So…" I said, wanting a bit more information before I jumped to any conclusions. "What was the artifact that kept her human?"

"When Primus changed Shadebreaker into a human, she was wearing a necklace," Vector said. "It was an Autobot insignia necklace, to be specific. As long as that necklace was on her person, she would remain human. However, she lost it during some dealings with Starscream."

I narrowed my optics as I thought about what he was saying. They hid Shadebreaker, as a human, in a reality where Cybertronians were fictional, presumably the same reality I was from. An Autobot necklace was keeping her human. She arrived in her home reality, where she's been with the Autobots ever since. She lost the necklace while dealing with Starscream.

Optics still narrowed, I titled my helm as I focused on that piece of information. I absently moved a servo up to my chest, where the insignia would be if I still had it. What did happen to that? When I thought about it, the last I recalled seeing the necklace was when I had placed it in my pocket that day I was talking to Starscream. I was briefly distracted by wondering whatever had happened to him. My thoughts didn't dwell on that for long though as it went through another summary of Vector's story.

After going through the information two more times, I still wasn't convinced my suspicions were correct, so I simply asked. "Ok, I think I get it," I said carefully. "But…why are you telling me all this?"

"Because," Vector said and he looked a little unsure. "You are Shadebreaker."

That confirmed my suspicion, but that didn't make it any easier to come to terms with. "What?" I asked, optics widening now. I looked at Vector in disbelief.

"You are Shadebreaker," Vector said again, giving me a patient and understanding look.

I looked at him for a moment before turning my attention to my door wings. I moved them up and down, watching as the shade of purple changed with their movement. Suddenly, it made sense and I chuckled a little, turning my attention back to Vector, who looked relieved that I at least didn't appear to be too terribly upset.

"I see why Shadow' said he saw why I was named Shadebreaker," I said, my tone light to let Vector know I was not upset.

Vector smiled, seeing that I was at least starting to accept what he was saying. "You believe me, then," he said, sounding like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

I looked at Vector, my creator I guessed, the equivalent of a father. I wasn't sure what the Cybertronian term was. Suddenly, it all made sense. Why I was brought to the reality I was in now. Why I changed into a Cybertronian. Everything. Except there was one thing I still didn't understand. My optics ridges came together as I thought again.

"There's still one thing I don't understand," I said.

"What is it, my Little One?" Vector asked.

"During the battle against that Unicron creep," I said, noting how Vector looked amused when I called the source of ancient evil a 'creep'. "He kept referring to me as a Prime."

Vector Prime stood tall and gazed at me with pride in his optics. "That is because you are a Prime," he said. "And I am very proud of you. You've grown into a wonderful femme."

I felt happiness swell in my spark at the praise from the mech. Even if he wasn't my creator, he was one of the Thirteen and the praise would've made me feel great anyway. But I was still unsure about that.

"But…" I said uncertainly. "How could I be a Prime? I wasn't aware that was simply a heritage thing…and I'm definitely not any kind of powerful bot or anything."

"You are right about it not being merely a heritage thing," Vector conceded as he came closer to me. He placed a hand on my shoulder as I gazed up at him. "However, being a Prime is not about how powerful you are. It is about how selfless your spark is. And your spark has always been in the right place, even in your time as a human."

I wasn't really sure how I was supposed to respond to all of this, but looking up into my creator's loving and proud gaze, I felt like doing only one thing. So I did it. I stood as his hand dropped from my shoulder and then hugged the Prime the best I could. He chuckled and wrapped his arms around me as he knelt so we could hug in a less awkward fashion. Suddenly, I felt emotions that I somehow knew were not my own. Chief among them were love and joy. I paused a moment to ponder this.

Vector pulled back slightly and looked at me. "It's called a bond," he said. "Ours is a parental bond, we share it because you are my creation. You have not felt it until now, because I did not know how you would react."

I nodded in understanding. Vector pulled me to him again and I was content to hug him back, happy with the embrace. He placed a servo on the back of my helm and held me tightly to him for a few moments, as if reassuring himself that I was there and that I had accepted what he had told me. He pulled back and placed his hands on both my shoulders.

"Alright, my Little One," Vector said. "How about we rejoin the others and you can talk with them?"

"Sure," I said and he smiled before walking back in the direction of the others.

In my happiness I forgot about the fact that I was still healing and nearly skipped after him. However, the moment my near-skip brought me onto my right pede, I flinched as pain flared in that pede. I stopped for a moment allowing the pede a moment for the pain to go back down. Vector stopped as well and looked at me in concern.

"Remind me not to sort of skip whenever I have a healing pede," I said before walking a little more slowly to catch up with him.

"What's wrong with your pede?" Vector asked, giving me a light side hug as we walked.

"Some Con cut a gash in it," I said. "But it's ok, Ratchet fixed it. It's just still a little sore."

"Ah," Vector said. He sounded amused by something, but I was not sure what it could be.

"Not funny," I said, poking my creator in the side.

"Of course not," Vector said, his side hug tightening a little in comfort. "That's not what I found amusing my dear Shadebreaker."

"Then what's amusing?" I asked.

He grinned down at me. "Perhaps another time," he said.

I huffed a little, but didn't press. He chuckled at me a bit before allowing his arm to drop from around me so we both could walk a little less awkwardly. When we came back into the view of the others, I couldn't help but notice how everyone was significantly taller than I was.

"I feel dwarfed," I said. "How come I couldn't inherit some of that height?"

Vector chuckled. "You get that from your carrier's side," he said, clearly amused at the fact that I pointed it out. "You do look a lot like her." He paused and looked at me. "You are a little taller than her though. And you do have my optics, though mine do not change shade."

I grinned at that. "Did my carrier have that trait too?" I asked.

"No," Vector said. "It is a trait unique to you."

"Sweet," I said, still grinning.

We made the rest of the walk back in silence. I didn't ask any more about my carrier, figuring I would learn more about her another time. Right now I had a family I never knew I had to spend time with. That was a processor blower, the Thirteen are my family and I had what was basically a cousin. Would that mean I am distantly related to Optimus as well? Speaking of Optimus, I was gonna have to talk him when I returned to base. If Ratchet ever let me out of the med bay…

"Vector told you that you are his daughter," Shadow stated matter-of-factly, as Vector and I returned to our respective platforms.

I smiled brightly. "Yup, so that makes you basically my cousin, doesn't it?" I asked cheerfully, door-wings moving slightly.

"I guess it does," he said, nodding.

My door wings moved a little as I felt happy with the turn of events that had happened. I looked over at Prima, curious as to what was next.

"What other questions do you have Shadebreaker?" the huge Cybertronian asked, smiling lightly as he called me by my real name.

"Only a like bajillion!" I said, having a lot of stuff I wanted cleared up.

Solus laughed. "How about we just stick with one at a time?" she asked in an amused tone.

"Okay," I said. I paused, shifting through the numerous questions I had in search of what one I wanted to ask first. Eventually, I decided on, "Why are there only six of you? You're missing seven." The absence of the other members of the Thirteen confused me. Why weren't they here?

Prima looked at me for a few micro-klicks before answering. "That requires a longer answer than you'd expect," that was all the warning he gave us before we all were standing in a cavern of some kind. Judging from the metal walls, we were on Cybertron suddenly.

My optics immediately fell on this huge cube. "Whoa," I said quietly, in awe at the monumental object in front of us.

"This is the AllSpark, it contained part of the essence of Primus when we discovered it deep beneath the surface of Cybertron," Prima said, looking up at the cube.

I shook my helm, bringing myself out of my awed state so I could learn why, and how we were here. "How are we here?" I asked, a little bit confused as I turned to look at the large mech that had spoken.

"We're not really here," my creator said, pulling my attention to him. "This is merely a hologram that Solus and I created. It allows us to play back events that occurred countless centi-vorns ago, such as this one." He looked around the cavern as he spoke.

_That's like, a long time,_ I thought as my optics widened slightly.

"It is a long time, isn't it?" Shadowstreaker said.

I looked over at the black mech, surprised he knew what I was thinking. I looked at my creator in question.

"He is very perceptive, my Little One," Vector said, giving me an amused, yet loving, look. "Don't bother trying to figure out how he knew that."

"We were exploring the depths of Cybertron when we discovered the AllSpark," Prima explained, motioning for me to watch the scene that was unfolding.

"The AllSpark was the essence of Primus," Megatronus said. "It is impossible to feel unwelcomed in this cavern."

I looked over at the mech briefly, taking note of the fact that he appeared to be sad. When he continued, his voice had grown sad.

"Earlier in our travels, I came across a small amount of Dark Energon," Megatronus said and I shivered some at the mention of the substance. "It would be my downfall." He ended with a sad sigh.

I looked at him curiously. "Is that what made you become The Fallen?" I asked, remembering how Megatron had fought over control over his own body during the fight against Unicron. He nodded grimly.

"We saw his sanity disappear and we moved to protect the AllSpark from his corrupted being," Alpha Trion said as the forms of the Thirteen moved between Megatronus and the AllSpark.

I watched the scene as a small, and destructive, struggle took place. I tensed and I felt my door wings arch as they drooped as I saw two of the Thirteen fall. I did not know who they were, but simply the knowledge that they had been offlined made me sad, even as the past Prima stood over the offlined Primes and Solus as she clutched at her spark, clearly in pain. Megatronus, looking slightly differently and having red optics, attacked Prima with fury. He was stopped well short of his goal though and his optics briefly became blue again.

"Briefly, I gained control of myself," Megatronus said. "And told Prima of the corruption done by the Dark Energon and that when I descended into madness again I'd go after the AllSpark no matter where it was."

"We opened up a portal to another reality," Vector said. "And sent the AllSpark through it."

"I followed and it was when I entered the portal that The Fallen and I became two separate beings," Megatronus explained.

The scene changed from the cavern and became what appeared to be some other location on Cybertron, but I wasn't sure where it was. It was a mostly flat landscape, though I could see debris laying around from destroyed structures. I could see the Thirteen who weren't dead, minus Megatronus, and noticed that they were fighting alongside other bots in a massive and horrid battle against bots being led by…one of them? I looked at my creator for an explanation.

"After the incident with the Dark Energon, Liege Maximo started secretly plotting against us," Vector explained. "He waited for more than a centi-vorn until he had gathered enough followers, and then he turned on us, making a grab for power while aiming to destroy those that opposed him."

As he spoke, I could feel his feelings of hurt and betrayal. I could tell he was really hurt by Liege Maximo's betrayal. Having two brothers betray you, even if one did become good again, did sound really painful. I knew if any of the Bots turned on us then I would feel the same way that he felt. I sent comfort his way through our bond and I received his thanks in return.

"Those that did not follow Liege Maximo's tyranny came to our aid. We fought to protect that which he sought to destroy," Alpha Trion continued the story, bringing my attention back to the battle taking place. His voice showed that he was also saddened greatly by these events. "But our fallen brother and his army of supporters proved difficult to defeat."

The scene changed, showing what appeared to be another battle as he spoke. It changed a few times and it became apparent to me that it had become a full out war. I could almost sense the sadness of all of the Thirteen as we watched the events take place and it was all I could do not to give every one of the bots around me a hug before it was over.

"Many of those that stood by us were lost in that war," Prima said, his voice calm, but with a trace of the sadness I knew he must've felt. "Including some of our own brothers."

The scene changed a few more times, each time showing one of the Thirteen fall. They didn't go quietly, destroying many of the traitor's ranks. The scene after the last missing Prime fell was one of those around me, minus Shadowstreaker, taking on Liege Maximo, who was fighting them on his own.

"Eventually," Alpha Trion said. "We were able to stop Liege Maximo, in what would be the mech's final battle before offlining."

I watched as Liege Maximo fought off the Primes around him with an incredible amount of skill. He was taking advantage of the surrounding debris to avoid getting shot by the cannons of the other members of the Thirteen. He was using a pair of swords that crackled with electricity which easily cut through the armor of lesser armored Cybertronians, but not Primes.

The battle was over when Prima pulled out the hilt of the sword he carried on his back plates. The elegant and artistically carved sword hilt produced a blade made from pure energy, which took the shape of a double-edged greatsword that gleamed like the core of a star.

Prima and Liege Maximo fought one on one in what was now a one-sided battle for a very brief time before Prima stabbed Liege Maximo through the chest plates and into his spark. The remaining members of the past Thirteen looked sadly at the offlined chassis of their fallen brother for a few moments, morning for the mech that had once been their brother.

"It was thus that our number dwindled to where it is now," Prima said solemnly as the scenery faded to be replaced with the place we were really at.

There was silence a few moments as I tried to think of something, _anything_, to say to all that. Some way of lifting the mood back up or at least have someone say something. My door wings remained drooped, having not lifted since they first drooped when the first two had fallen in the cavern, even as I looked up at the Thirteen, who all seemed to be saddened after watching the events unfold again. I frowned. The Thirteen were sad. That would not do. So I did what I do whenever one of the bots are sad.

I walked up to Prima, who looked a little amused, probably knowing what I was up to, and he knelt down, proving me right. When he was at my level, I gave him a nice big, tight hug before moving on to give the rest of them hugs. Next was Alpha Trion, then Megatronus, then Solus, then Zeta and finally my creator, who I knew needed the hug. I hugged him just a tad bit longer than I did the others, since he was my creator. I sent feelings of comfort his way, hoping to pick his spirits up. He chuckled lightly, giving me a tight squeeze in his own comfort, knowing I had been saddened by the events as well, albeit not to as high a degree.

After a couple moments, we let go of each other and I moved to Shadowstreaker next. I looked up at him, debating whether or not to hug him as well.

"That's alright, I don't want a hug," Shadowstreaker said, holding up a hand.

"Why not?" I asked, poking him, only to have my hand go right through him in a puff of black smoke. My jaw dropped and I stared at the spot I had poked as the smoke disappeared.

"That's why," Shadowstreaker said.

"Oh…" I said, optics ridges coming together as I tried to make sense of that. "How come I can't touch you? I can touch everybot else…" My helm tilted in my confusion.

"Because, Little One," Prima answered for him. "Unlike you, Shadowstreaker is not a Prime. As such, he is not really here."

"Oh," I said, before looking up at the black mech. I turned back to Prima, moving to take my spot on my rune covered platform again. "Why isn't he a Prime?" I asked, concerned and feeling bad that I couldn't give him a hug even though I gave everybot else a hug.

"He has not yet gained that status," Alpha Trion explained.

"I do believe he will though," Megatronus said with a rather proud smile, showing that he believed in his son.

I looked over at Shadowstreaker to see that he was apparently shocked at Megatronus's words.

"I will never be a Prime, I am not worthy of such a prestigious title," Shadowstreaker said, his tone full of humility.

"You don't know that," I said, causing the black mech to look at me. I crossed my servos across my chest. "No bot knows the future."

Shadowstreaker paused. "I will give you that one," he said. "But I still don't believe it will happen."

I gave him an exasperated look, but didn't continue, getting feelings from my creator indicating that I should just drop it. I huffed a little. Humility was great and all, but couldn't the mech accept a compliment once in a while?

"Do you have any more questions, Shadebreaker?" Solus asked, apparently bringing the topic to something else.

"Um, yeah," I said. I looked between Megatronus, Solus and Shadowstreaker. My optics stopped on the black mech. "Um, you said earlier that there was a long story behind you being Megatronus's son." I looked up at him in slight confusion. "How is that a long story?"

The three bots shared a look.

"Perhaps we could go for a walk and we could tell you all about it," Megatronus suggested.

I hesitated and looked over to my creator. He smiled and nodded. I went to follow them, but paused again before rushing over to Vector and giving him another hug. He merely chuckled and hugged me back before sending me on my way.

We walked off, them telling the story behind Shadowstreaker's 'long story'. Turns out, he had been a human previously, in the same reality I had been in. He apparently "died" in that reality, but Solus had saved him by giving him some of her nanites, which had the side effect of turning him into a Cybertronian. Since it had been Solus's nanites that had changed him, she became his carrier and they shared a bond as such. Oddly enough, even though this in turn made Megatronus his sire, which was apparently the word they used, they did not share a bond.

"But…" I said, looking at the black mech in confusion. "I don't get it. Why don't you have a bond with Megatronus? He is technically your…sire." I found the word odd, this being the first time I had heard it. I still liked 'creator' better.

"I don't know why Megatronus and I do not share bond, there are a number of possible reasons for why that is." Shadowstreaker said.

We continued walking, but I paused when we came across a couple of statues. One of them was carved out of a white boulder. Every angle on the Cybertronian was regal and majestic. The unnamed Cybertronian didn't use any weapons against his opponent. He seemed to be using some telepathic ability as he held up his servos toward the other Cybertronian. His adversary's statue was in a position suggesting he was being thrown backward.

The second statue was carved out of a dark grey boulder and was the polar opposite of the first Cybertronian. The angles on his chassis were so sharp that they might as well have been swords, which was appropriate considering his right servo was a spiked drill and his left servo was just a spike. I easily recognized this one as Unicron, the destroyer. Which could only mean the other was Primus, our creator.

I was aware that the other three were observing as I looked at the statues. I pointed toward the one of Unicron and looked at Shadowstreaker seriously. "In the case you are ever inside that creep," I said. "Don't ride on his anti-bodies, it is not fun."

Shadowstreaker looked surprised at my words. "You've been inside of Unicron?" he asked.

I nodded before shivering. "Not a pleasant experience, but yes," I said.

"Huh. That would explain why you shivered when Megatronus mentioned Dark Energon," Shadowstreaker said.

My door wings tilted downward slightly as I fought another shiver. "Can we stop talking about it? It's rather creepy," I said, trying not to think of how I had almost passed out from the effects of the stuff or how Bulkhead had nearly fallen or how I had nearly fallen to my own offlining.

"Perhaps we could talk about how a certain mech has feelings for a certain blue femme," Megatronus suggested teasingly, nudging his son in the side.

"What?" I asked, interested as we started walking again.

"Nothing, nothing at all," Shadowstreaker said, a little too quickly for it to be true.

I gave him a measuring look before I realized what Megatronus had meant. "Oh, you like Arcee!" I said and laughed lightly.

"My CPU says it's just a stupid temporary crush I should just ignore, but my spark has been saying otherwise as of late. I'm more inclined to listen to my CPU and ignore what my spark says." Shadowstreaker said, obviously wanting to change the topic.

I narrowed my optics at him and crossed my servos over my chest plates. "You should never ignore what your spark is telling you," I said firmly.

"Says the femme who is in love with Ratchet and doesn't even know it," he countered, as we kept walking though the field of boulders.

I tilted my helm in confusion. Large black mech say what now? "What?" I asked.

He gave me a 'Really' look, like I should have known this a long time ago and turned to his creators as they walked next to him. He said something in Cybertronian, leaving me out of the loop.

"Hey! Don't cut me out of the conversation!" I protested. My door wings twitched in irritation.

Megatronus then told Shadowstreaker something in Cybertronian.

"When I get back I am so going to ask Ratchet to teach me how to speak Cybertronian," I grumbled, door wings twitching again.

Shadowstreaker and Megatronus laughed out loud and I came to a halt and huffed.

"Haha," I said dryly. "It's not funny from my end…" I narrowed my optics at the two laughing mechs.

"Really? It sure is from this end, though," Megatronus noted and I huffed again.

"How's that?" I asked.

"Because you and Ratchet both like each other, but you are oblivious to your own feelings," Solus stated casually.

I looked at the three bots incredulously. I could tell Solus was also amused with this whole thing. "You know what I think?" I said. "I think you're all crazy."

"And you're in denial," Shadowstreaker said.

I rolled my optics.

"I think maybe it's time to head back," Solus said. "It's about time for you two to return to your realities."

With that we headed back to the others. On the way we talked a bit more about random things. I did recall hearing about something called MECH before and the thought randomly popped into my processor that they might know something about it.

"Hey, I have a real question," I said. "Do any of you guys know what MECH is?"

Shadowstreaker sighed. "I'll give you the short version," he said. "They are a group of human terrorists bent on stealing our technology so they can make their own versions of us and usher in the newest world order." He rolled his optics before continuing. "They believe that it's only a matter of time before the Autobots try and take over the world. They steal every piece of useful technology they come across, and the leader of MECH dreams of capturing one of us and learning how we work." His voice was full of disgust.

"They sound like idiots to me," I said, though I felt a shiver run up my spine. "Who leads them?"

"A psychopath named Clancy Arkeville," Shadowstreaker said. He put his servos behind his back.

I let out a small laugh. "Clancy?" I asked. I grinned. "I bet he hates that name."

Shadowstreaker grinned a little. "Yeah, I bet," he said.

I chuckled a little, finding it quite funny. It wasn't much longer until we made it back to the others, where I immediately gave my creator a big hug before the Thirteen sent both Shadowstreaker and I on our way.

**~Autobot Base, Amelia's PoV~**

When I woke up back in the med bay of the Autobot base, the first thing I noticed was that it was still nighttime. Despite this, and the fact that technically I was not just recharging, I felt wide awake and alert. I supposed that it was hard to be sleepy when having things on your processor told to you by the Thirteen. I was the only one in the room, proof that Ratchet had gone to his quarters for some rest. Or, at least I hoped that was where he was at, cause I needed to take a walk. And if he caught me out and about, he would not be happy.

"Sorry Ratch'," I said, apologizing for breaking my promise to stay in here even though he couldn't hear me as I swung my legs over the side of the berth. "But the med bay is not conducive to my thoughts."

I looked around to be positive that I was alone before standing to my feet. I carefully walked to the door, being careful both for my pede and to avoid detection. I pressed the button to open the door and then peered out into the hallway. I gave a relieved sigh when I saw that there was no bot in sight. I anxiously eased into the hallway, keeping close to the wall in case, even though with my colors there was no way that I could blend in with it. I cautiously made my way toward my quarters, intending to grab my data pad I used to write things down on before going up top for some air. I eyed the door across the hall from my quarters, wary it might open and Ratchet may catch me.

When I was sure it wasn't going to open, I walked carefully over to my door and started punching in the key code. Just before I pressed in the last digit, I heard a door open and froze, realizing immediately I had been caught. _Please don't let it be Ratchet,_ I begged in my mind.

"Amelia!"

_Of course it had to be Ratchet,_ I thought. I sighed, door wings drooping.

"What are you doing outside med bay?" he asked, his voice partially frustrated and partially concerned.

"I couldn't sleep," I said. "So I wanted to get my data pad…"

**~Normal PoV~**

Ratchet stared at the white and purple femme's back. He could tell something was on her processor, but he couldn't tell what. He had actually been about to go check on her, being unable to sleep himself, her words earlier and Ironhide's words just before the incident with the SynthEn had been running through his processor. He knew she had only been joking, she did that from time to time, as there was no way she knew his sparks feelings before he told her himself. At least, that's what he told himself.

"Are you alright?" he asked in concern, noting the tension in her body.

"I'm fine," she said rather stiffly. "I just couldn't get back to sleep after…" she shook her head. "Nevermind, I'll go back to med bay, after I get my data pad."

She pressed the last key to open her door, but he reached out and stopped her before she could walk in.

"Amelia, tell me what's wrong," he said. "Perhaps I can be of help."

Amelia took a deep breath, seeming to be calming herself. "It's not really something wrong," she said, "as much as it is a lot to think about. I do not wish to tell it twice, I would like Optimus to be present when I do tell it."

Ratchet nodded. He heard footsteps and looked up to see the mentioned mech walking down the hall with Elita, who was carrying a recharging Lunarfire. Seeing the youngling reminded Ratchet of how good Amelia had been with the little one.

"Go ahead and get your data pad," Ratchet said. Then he turned to Optimus and Elita as they walked up. "Optimus. Elita-1." he greeted.

"Is something wrong?" Optimus asked.

"Amelia says she couldn't sleep," Ratchet said. "And she apparently wants to talk to you about something, though she didn't specify whether alone or not."

"It does not matter to me," Amelia's voice had the three bots looking to her as the two newcomers took in the tension in her body and they all noticed the confused look in her optics.

"Perhaps we should at least take this out of the hallway," Elita suggested.

"Come on," Ratchet said. "Amelia is supposed to be in the med bay."

Said femme gave a sheepish grin before following behind Ratchet with the others. She walked silently next to Optimus, who would occasionally glance at her in concern. He could tell she was deep in thought about something and wasn't sure about something. He could also tell she wanted to start talking about whatever it was, but was waiting until they were in the med bay. Once they were there, she sat down on her usual berth, her data pad she had fetched from her quarters held in her servos as he and the others stood around her.

"So," Elita said. "What's troubling you?"

"You guys know the Thirteen?" Amelia asked, looking up at the three bots surrounding her.

"The first of the Primes, of course," Ratchet said.

"Well, I um, talked to them…" she said, leaving the three bots stunned.

"You talked with the Thirteen?" Elita asked, surprised at this.

Amelia nodded, a trace of a smile making its way onto her faceplate. She looked at Optimus. "Did you know you're the descendent of Prima?"

"I was not aware," Optimus conceded. "I take it he told you this?"

"Yes, among other things," she said. "For example, I now know why certain things have happened to me."

"Oh?" Ratchet asked.

Amelia then launched into an explanation of what the Primes had told her, starting with the battle with The Fallen that ended with Megatronus and The Fallen becoming separate beings. She followed with Vector's explanation about his daughter and how he had told her that she was his daughter and the parental bond that proved it was true and that her real name was apparently Shadebreaker.

_It fits,_ Ratchet thought when he heard what her name was. He was glad that she seemed perfectly happy to find that she had family in this world, however, he felt his spark sink. She was a Prime, as much as she seemed to disbelieve that part, and he knew at that moment he did not have a chance with her. Why would she ever like a mere medic such as himself? Even without her apparent Prime status, she was still a descendent of the Thirteen, a direct descendent at that. She deserved better than a grouchy old mech such as himself.

"I still doubt the part of me being a Prime," Shadebreaker said. Her door wings took a small downward tilt to show that doubt.

"Shadebreaker," Optimus said, placing a hand on the femme's shoulder. "You may not be the most well-equipped for battle, or a strategist. But those are not the things that make a Prime. You have proven to care greatly about those around you and your spark is always in the right place, though at times misguided. If the Thirteen say you are a Prime, then you are and we all will get used to it." His voice never lost its calm, wise tone, though a hint of amusement was in there when he referenced the time the twins had dragged her into a prank.

Shadebreaker's door wings twitched. "I only hope I can do the title justice then," she said, her voice full of self-doubt.

"I am sure you will do just fine," Optimus said, giving her shoulder a reassuring squeeze before letting his hand drop.

Shadebreaker smiled a little bit before yawning, feeling like she could get some recharge now.

"Alright, we all need to get some recharge, especially Shadebreaker, she's had a long day it sounds like," Ratchet said.

"Of course," Optimus said. "Recharge well, Shadebreaker."

"I will try," the white and purple femme promised.

After shooing the other two bots out, Ratchet took one last look at the femme he had fallen in love with as she got comfortable.

_There's no way I can tell her now,_ he thought. _She'll never fall for a mech like me._

As if sensing that he was still there, Shadebreaker looked up at him and smiled, causing his spark to warm in his chassis. He sighed and left the med bay, wishing things could be different.


	28. Relics of the Primes

**A/N: **Yay! Update! :D This chapter is a whole 6,158 words! I love these long chapters I've been able to write lately. :D Also I am going to do the author's replies that I didn't do last chapter, so if you didn't get one when you should've last chapter, you'll get your response now. I'm not as pressed for time as I was when I got the last update for this story so I can take the time now. Yay! :D

**Late Author's Replies:**

**Jayna Prime: **Yup, that's a good thing definitely. :D

**Jazz-Transformers: **Indeed! XD

**pokemonjkl: **Glad you liked it.

**Mercedes Wolfcry: **Ouch, that had to have hurt. . Glad you liked it.

**Sci-Fifan95: **Hehehe, he would've deserved it, wouldn't he? Glad you liked it.

**Akira Alvina: **Indeed! Glad you liked it. :D

**Luna Prime- Awesomeness: **Indeed he did. :) Glad you liked it.

**xVentressx: **Which one? Patty cake or the Hokey Pokey? They are both fun. :D

**CatGirlFireflare: **Glad you liked it!

**GalaxyWarrioress1234: **I'm sure you are not the only one. ;)

**Sailor Shinzo: **The only thing I can think of that she lost was her phone, but Starscream gave it back to her, before she destroyed it. Lol. They got his memories back at the end of the chapter. Why else would they have returned from the mission? lol

**Princess Thil Galel: **chpt 26:Hooray for defying Cons! Lol. chpt 27:lol hehe I thought it would be a nice fun thing to do. :D

**ilikeanimeandmanga: **He may have accepted his feelings, but the mech is stubborn. :) It will come.

**Vivian Hale: **Sorry Viv, I tend to notice things like that. . And yes, we thank Ratch' for getting back at that sadistic Con. Why wouldn't it be a good idea to drive her to school Jazz? It's better than walking some times, take it from someone who nearly gets hit by a car on a weekly basis heading to and from work at the college. Stupid lack of sidewalks. T.T Glad you guys liked it. ^.^

**FoxyAlterEgos: **Thanks! I am glad you have liked it so far! :)

**On Time Author's Replies: **

**Akira Alvina: **Yes, poor Ratch' thinks he doesn't have a chance. But we all know differently. ;) It being 1 am is a good excuse for not fully getting it yet. :)

**pokemonjkl: **Update is here! *grins*

**Jayna Prime: **Lol sis. Glad you liked it.

**FoxyAlterEgos: **I know. :( Glad you like it so far. Here's the next update! :D

**Luna Prime- Awesomeness: **I am glad you liked it. And don't worry about being sad for Ratchet, it is hard not to. Poor mech doesn't even realize… *shakes helm sadly*

**CatGirlFireflare: **Thanks! :D

**Mercedes Wolfcry: **Thanks. :)

**Sci-Fifan95: **Hehe. Thanks bro! I'm pretty sure you're not the only one who wants to give the doc bot a bit of advice. ;P

**GalaxyWarrioress1234: **:o I don't think punching him would help! 500 words? I wouldn't dare post a chapter that short! :o It'll be a sign of the apocalypse if I ever write a chapter that short.

**Sailor Shinzo: **The irony of your observation will be seen in this chapter. :)

**Jaacs McHenry: **If only he could hear you, huh? :) I'm sure things will get worked out between them. :D

**Mikeala the Cat: **Indeed on both accounts. Hehe. I think it's just a living being thing. Lol I am glad you have liked it so much.

**TheBlackRose: **I am glad you like our stories. :D The next chapter is here! *grins*

**Jazz-Transformers: **Indeed.

**KayleeChiara: **Thanks! I am glad you liked it. :)

**Devil-O-Angel: **We are talking about it, but it won't be for a while. We have a specific point in his story we are talking about, but he still has a ways to go before he gets there. ;)

**xVentressx: **Well, wait no more! Cause it is here! :D Glad you are enjoying my story. :)

**Lunarshadowangel: **Thanks! I am glad you have liked it so far. :) And of course there will be more chapters! This story ain't over yet!

**ilikeanimeandmanga: **He's just stubborn. :)

**Vivian Hale: **Thanks Viv! I am glad you have liked my story so far. I hope to have longer chapters more often. :) I am getting better at writing longer chapters. ^.^

And now! After a half hour of typing the responses…The update! :D

**Chapter 28: Relics of the Primes**

**~Autobot Base, Shadebreaker's PoV~**

"You're a Prime?" Lunarfire asked, wide eyed as she stared up at me from her spot on the walkway with the human children.

"Apparently," I said, shifting a little on my pedes. I was still trying to believe it.

"Are you going to be our leader like Optimus?" Lunarfire asked.

At that, I got a mental imagine of the universe exploding and I flinched visibly. "I…think I'll leave the leading up to Optimus," I said. "He's much better at it I think."

"You don't think you could lead us?" Lunarfire asked innocently.

"Uh…" I said. How does one respond to that when it's asked so innocently by a youngling? If I were to be completely honest in this case I would say because I might get everyone killed. However, that was not something to tell a youngling. "No, no I don't." I couldn't lie, but that didn't mean I had to expound to her why.

"But why not?"

I gave a heavy sigh, being assaulted by that image of the universe exploding again. Why couldn't I have a reason that wouldn't be bad to mention in front of a youngling?

Seeing that I was getting really uncomfortable with the conversation, Jack stepped up.

"Hey, uh, Lunarfire," he said. "You want to come play hide-and-seek with us?"

"Yes!" Lunarfire cheered and left with the human children.

I breathed a sigh of relief when they were gone, knowing the children would keep a good eye on the femmeling. Looking around, I found that no one else was in here, so I decided to go up top to get some fresh air. I hadn't been outside since returning with Orion Pax. That had been just over a week ago and I was just out of the med bay so I was a little anxious.

I sighed at the thought of the med bay as I came to the elevator that would take me outside to the top of the base. The past week since our discovery about who I am Ratchet had been more or less avoiding me. When he was around, he was strictly professional. It baffled me why he suddenly withdrew from the way he usually acted. It also made me worry if something was wrong. I vaguely thought that it had something to do with my apparent status as a Prime. It seemed that everyone had accepted that except for me. But no one acted any different toward me aside from Ratchet.

I sighed again, waiting for the elevator to reach the top. When it did, I stepped out into the warm Nevada air and took a deep breath as the soft breeze hit me. I looked around for a good spot to relax. There was the large metal pad that served as the landing spot for Fowler's helicopter whenever he visited. There was also a part of the cliff that was higher than the part the elevator led to. I decided to climb up there and I saw that there was a single tree on the other side, along with what appeared to be a pile of rocks on what would be the right side when facing said tree.

I walked over to the tree and sat down under it, leaning back against it to relax. I crossed my legs and rested my arms on them as I looked out at the desert valley that surrounded the base. From up here, it was impossible to tell that a base that held giant aliens existed underneath the surface. I wasn't even sure how big our base really was, as I hadn't yet been everywhere in it yet. I had been everywhere on the main level, where our quarters, med bay and the ops center was, but I had yet to be anywhere on the level below that besides the training room, which was also called the safe, and the library. Arcee had told me that they have been working on getting some wash racks down there, but it had been a battle for Fowler to get the Pentagon to agree to it. Something about water bills. Said wash racks were being built now though, but wouldn't be completed for another day or so.

"Too bad, I could really use a wash," I noted to myself, picking a bit of dried sand from the seam in my leg armor. "It's not like I could just drive to the nearest lake and take a swim."

I sighed, brushing more dirt off me. I had been keeping myself pretty clean, but I just hadn't been too focused on it since discovering everything. Not that I had been in a situation that got me dirty lately anyways. Staying in base was an easy way to avoid getting covered in dirt. However, with the breeze kicking up the sand, the moment I stepped out of the elevator I felt the sand get blown onto my pedes.

My processor drifted to what I had learned in that visit to the Thirteen as I watched the sand lightly blowing across the desert and off the tops of the other cliffs littering the valley. I could believe the part about me being Vector Prime's daughter, if only because it made things make sense and the fact that I could still feel him through our bond, but it wasn't as strong as when we were right next to each other. I figured it was because of the distance or something. I wasn't entirely sure. I also didn't have a hard time believing much of the other stuff I had learned. The only things I was having difficulty with were the fact that I was apparently a Prime and what the two Primes and their son had claimed about Ratchet.

"_Says the femme who is in love with Ratchet and doesn't even know it." _Shadowstreaker's words floated through my processor.

_But I'm not,_ I thought. _Am I?_

I had to think about that now it seemed, because my processor wouldn't change the subject. I knew my spark felt differently toward him than the others. I found it odd how it would pulse just a little warmer at the thought that there was something more between Ratchet and myself. And the strange feelings it gave me when around Ratchet didn't help the case either. Arcee had tried to help me understand them and when she couldn't, she seemed to think Chromia would be able to. Chromia, who was sparkmate to Ironhide, who she had also said could've helped. Somehow, I got the feeling the facts of that time were connected. The fact that the ones she believed could explain it better were ones who were sparkmated led me to believe it had something to do with that kind of love.

_Which would mean Shadowstreaker and his creators were right,_ I thought before sighing. _But how am I supposed to know that for certain?_

I shook the thoughts out of my processor. Even if it was true, I doubted Ratchet felt the same way. I felt a small amount of pain in my spark at the thought and flinched slightly.

I felt a questioning feeling through my bond with my creator and sighed. Of course, he would pick up on my feelings even with our bond dimmed. I sent back a reassurance that I was ok before receiving feelings of comfort and love from my creator. I couldn't help but smile as I sent my thanks and my own love back. I felt the bond dim again to where I was just aware of it once he was satisfied that I was alright.

I couldn't help but smile at the fact that I had someone looking out for me who was family, more than in just that I viewed them as such. It was comforting. And that someone was a Prime.

_And then…so am I,_ I thought absently. _According to him…and everybot else anyway._

I wasn't able to started pondering on how that could be before I heard footsteps walking up. I tilted my head to the side a bit to find that it was Optimus. I stood to my feet and gave a small bow of my head in greeting.

"Optimus," I greeted. "What brings you out here?"

"I was concerned for my fellow Prime," Optimus said.

My door wings quirked sideways a bit. I sighed, turning back to the expanse as I heard Optimus move to stand beside me. "I still do not understand how I could be a Prime," I said. "I'm no leader." I shook my head. "I fear I'm more likely to get someone killed than actually succeed."

"That is understandable," Optimus said. "If it is any consolation, I felt the same way when I first became a Prime."

I looked at him incredulously. "You?" I asked. "But you're awesome at the job."

"As you have told me before," Optimus said. "However, I was not always. As you know, I was merely a data clerk before I became a Prime."

I thought about that for a moment. "True enough," I said. "But I still do not see anything good coming out of me being a leader. I think I'll leave that to you. You are much better at it. I keep getting the mental image of the universe exploding with me in charge."

"You will learn," Optimus said. "As I did."

I hummed, still not entirely convinced it wasn't a horrible idea for me to be a Prime.

"Shadebreaker," Optimus said, bringing my attention to him. "There is another reason why I sought you out."

I raised an optic ridge at him. "What's that?" I asked.

"Back shortly after we had left Cybertron," Optimus said as he took something out of his subspace. "We came across a few different relics of the Thirteen. Only one of them remain in our possession, and I believe you should have it."

I held my hand up in polite refusal. "N-No, I couldn't," I said. "I have done nothing to earn such an honor."

"I believe your sire would agree with me that you have earned it," Optimus said, holding the object out to me. "As a relic left by him, I believe he would want you to have it."

Hesitantly, I took the object he held out into my servos and looked at it. Whatever it was, it was in five pieces that were identical to each other. Each piece was long and narrow, made out of an unfamiliar alloy. One edge was sharp, as if it was once used as a weapon-though what weapon came in five pieces I couldn't fathom. The other edges were irregular, as if it had been shattered, but there was no evidence that that had happened. It seemed to evoke the idea of a weapon, but was never meant to be one. I could feel the ancient power in the pieces.

I looked up at Optimus. "What is it?" I asked, not knowing what it was exactly.

"The Blades of Time," Optimus told me. "When put together in the correct fashion they will open a portal to the Pocket Universe, where you spoke with the Primes. I actually met your sire once using them."

"Really?" I asked, looking up at Optimus with wide optics.

"He is the one who made me truly realize I was a Prime, when he referred to me as such himself," Optimus explained, nodding. "When the Thirteen call you Prime, then you are Prime."

I sighed, putting the relic into my subspace until I could put it safely in my quarters. "So no matter how much I don't think it's a good idea," I said. "I am a Prime." I sighed again.

Optimus put a hand on my shoulder. "You will learn and someday you will see that they had a good reason to name you a Prime," he said.

"Sure, we'll go with that," I said, grinning up at him slightly.

"You do not believe me," he said.

"Not at the moment," I said. "But you are not usually wrong, so I guess I'll probably find you are right one of these days."

Optimus gave my shoulder a reassuring pat before we fell into silence for a few moments.

"So," I said. "You once told me Elita was very special to you."

"Indeed," Optimus said.

"Does she know this?" I asked.

"I am a Prime, I cannot be distracted by this," Optimus said.

I raised an optic ridge at him. "Really?" I asked. "You're gonna play that card? For the record, Vector is a Prime, one of the Thirteen even, and he obviously got distracted by such a thing. Otherwise I wouldn't exist. Or if I did exist, it wouldn't be as the bot I am now. And he's not the only one of them either." I pointed my finger at him accusingly.

Optimus didn't appear to know how to respond to that.

"Food for thought," I said and shrugged, turning back to the expanse of desert.

"What about you?" Optimus asked, a hint of teasing in his tone. "Would you get distracted by such a thing?"

My door wings stiffened slightly. "Perhaps," I said. "If I had such a thing to be distracted with." I was ignoring the voice in the back of my processor that told me I did.

It was Optimus's turn to raise an optic ridge at me apparently, because he did. I suddenly grew uncomfortable with the conversation and shifted on my pedes.

"I think I'm gonna go back inside…" I said and turned to go back inside.

"Shadebreaker," Optimus said, stopping me just as I was about to climb down to the level the elevator and helicopter pad were on. I turned back and looked at him. "Know that you are not alone in this."

I smiled a little. "I know," I said. "Thanks Optimus."

I took the elevator back into the base and when I stepped back into the ops center, I noticed that Arcee and her siblings were in there, along with Ratchet. The kids all appeared to still be off playing. It was hard to tell where every bot else was.

"There you are, Shade'," Arcee said. "Come on the three of us need to talk."

"About?" I asked.

"Stuff," Arcee said, smirking a little.

But before the three femmes could drag me off to have this talk, there was a beeping from the computer. We shared a look and joined Ratchet at the computer.

"What's up, Ratchet?" Chromia asked.

"I'm picking up an Energon trail," Ratchet said. "Possibly mineable. Sensors aren't picking up any Cons."

"We can always use more of that," I noted.

"Yes," Ratchet agreed.

"We'll go," Elita said. "It's not that high risk, and we can all handle ourselves in a fight if we do run into trouble."

"What do you think, Shadebreaker?" Arcee asked. "You are the highest ranked here, since Optimus is occupied."

I got the distinct feeling that Optimus had been talking to the femmes before he came up and talked with me. I sighed. "Don't remind me," I said. "I'm about as good a leader as a Cyberkitten."

"For the record, Cyberkittens are really smart," Elita said, amused.

I rolled my optics. "I don't see anything wrong with the idea," I said. And I didn't. As Elita said, it wasn't high risk and we all knew how to handle ourselves in a fight either way.

"I'll activate the Ground Bridge then," Ratchet said, not commenting on our short conversation.

My door wing twitched a little. There was that professional tone of his again. What happened to that openness he had shown me before? I'm suddenly Prime and suddenly he was standoffish, like he thought that things were automatically different between us with my change in status. I really wanted to talk to him about that, because I didn't like the distance between us at all. It made my spark hurt and I didn't like that feeling. I wanted to be friends with him still.

I shook myself out of my thoughts as the Ground Bridge activated. I walked over to join the three sisters and we all transformed.

"Let's roll," I said before we sped off through the Ground Bridge.

We came out on the other side in a dense jungle. It was clear that we wouldn't be able to traverse it in our vehicle modes so we all transformed up to our bipedal forms. I looked around, scanning the area for any sign of an enemy as the others did the same. It wasn't until we were all sure we were alone that any of us spoke.

"Keep your scanners peeled for that Energon," Elita said, beginning to walk forward.

"Who needs scanners when we got Shade'?" Arcee asked.

"Haha," I said in response to her grin. "My sense of smell isn't infallible. I agree with Elita, keep your scanners peeled. If nothing else, at least for any hint of danger."

My door wings twitched in my alert state as I recalled my last visit to a vegetated area.

"Sense of smell?" Chromia asked.

"Our new Prime can smell Energon," Arcee explained as I experimentally took a whiff of the air.

I twitched at the mention of my new title, but chose not to say anything. I knew now that unless I wanted to get a lecture, I should keep my doubts to myself.

"That's a unique ability," Elita observed.

"So I've been told," I said. "I'm not smelling anything yet though."

"Scanner's picking up something this way," Chromia said, indicating a direction.

"We shall go that way then," I said.

We headed in the direction Chromia had picked up the signal from, Chromia in the lead. I followed behind her with Arcee and Elita following behind. I remained alert as I was careful not to step on anything living of run into the many branches. We all had to duck underneath some of the thicker branches we couldn't just bend aside without breaking.

"So, Shade'," Chromia said. "Arcee tells us you have some feelings you don't understand."

I stumbled a little as my pede got caught on a large root. I caught myself before I fell though.

"U-um," I said.

Arcee chuckled a little. "I didn't tell them details," she assured me. "But I thought they could give you better advice than I could."

I nodded in understanding.

"That is, if you want it," Elita said.

Did I want advice on the strange feelings I felt in my spark? I was still confused about them. Megatronus, Solus and Shadowstreaker all seemed to think I was in love with Ratchet, but I was still not convinced. I didn't truly know what they meant, which left me confused. I didn't like being so confused.

"Well," I said. "Given the choice over being puzzled over them or finding out what they mean, I think I'd rather know."

"Ok shoot," Chromia said as we continued to make our way through the dense jungle, following her sensors. "What are these feelings and who are they for?"

"Well," I said, pausing in my step to avoid stepping on a lizard that was scampering by. "It's Ratchet. And I'm not sure how to explain it."

"Just tell them what you told me," Arcee said.

"Well, it's changed a little since then," I said. "My spark feels really…warm when I'm around him. And happy. But when he's not around it kinda hurts. It's strange."

Chromia laughed a little. "It's not strange, Shade'," she said. "It sounds to me that you're in love."

"In love?" I asked, my door wing twitching as a warm feeling floating across my spark.

"Sounds like it to me too," Elita said. She grinned at me. "So you love the doc bot."

"Yeah, well," I said. "It's not like anything will come of it."

Chromia frowned back at me. "What makes you say that?" she asked.

"Oh come on," I said. "Why would Ratchet love me? There's nothing special about me."

"You're a Prime," Arcee said.

"And ever since we discovered that, he's been distant," I said, feeling a pang in my spark. "Does it really make things all that different? I'm still me."

The three femmes shared a look.

"He may think he doesn't have a chance with you," Elita said. "I know I don't have a chance with Optimus."

I paused and looked at the red femme. "You like Optimus?" I asked.

"She doesn't like him," Arcee said, grinning.

"She loves him," Chromia finished.

"Hey!" Elita said, looking flustered.

I giggled. "This _is_ interesting information," I said, grinning. The femmes all looked at me. "I'm not oblivious to _everything_ you know."

"You know something we don't," Arcee said.

"Maybe," I said, mischievousness filling my voice.

"And you're also not gonna tell us, are you?" Elita asked, looking more amused than annoyed.

"Nope," I said, perhaps a little too cheerfully.

"Then we won't tell you what we know," Chromia said.

"Fair enough," I shrugged. If I could have my fun, it was only right that they could have their fun too.

"Hm, scanners are picking up a Cybertronian signature now," Chromia said. "Looks like it's closer than the Energon."

"Autobot? Or Decepticon?" I asked immediately.

"Neither," Chromia said. "It's not a life sign, just something giving off a Cybertronian signature, like a beacon of sorts."

"We should check it out," Arcee said. "Whatever it is, I'm sure the Cons might get after it if they pick it up."

"You want us to call for back-up?" Elita asked.

"Let's check it out first," I said, taking a couple steps forward. I stopped again and turned to the others. "If we find trouble, then we'll call for back-up."

"Are you sure?" Arcee asked.

"If we wait for back-up, the Cons may pick up on it and get there before we do," I said. "At least if we get there first and then they show, we can at least hold them off until back-up arrives. Not knowing what it is, I'm not sure I want to risk the Cons getting there first." I paused, blinking at myself as the three femmes smirked.

"You're right," Chromia said. "If it's a weapon, we definitely don't want it to fall into Con hands."

"Well then, what are we waiting for?" Elita asked.

I nodded and we began moving again, all thoughts of our previous conversation pushed aside. As we picked our way through the jungle, following Chromia's scanners, I kept on high alert for any sign of Decepticons. I had never liked the idea that my friends could always get hurt on missions, or possibly not come back, but somehow the fact that I was now apparently a Prime only made me fear that that much more. They were my friends. I wanted them to stay alive. I wanted to be able to keep them from getting too harmed. And even if they weren't my friends, they are fellow Autobots and they are living beings, so I would want them to be safe anyway.

"We're getting close," Chromia said.

We began moving a bit slower, stealthily moving forward. Optics and sensors alert for anything off, we made our way toward the source of the signal. Chromia motioned to a clearing and when we were sure the coast was still clear, we moved out into it. We kept alert, with our weapons activated, as we moved toward the center of the clearing. Once there, we stood around a tree stump.

"The signal's coming from here," Chromia said.

"A tree stump?" Arcee asked, raising an optic ridge.

I shrugged. "Perhaps," I said. "Underneath?"

"Or inside is a possibility," Elita said.

"Uproot it or carve it?" Chromia asked.

"How are we supposed to know?" I asked, rubbing my temple with my thumb and forefinger. "I say uproot it first, we can always crack the stump open if we don't find anything underneath."

"Alright," Arcee said. "We should get digging then."

I nodded and three of us started digging. Elita stood watch first, while Arcee, Chromia and I dug out the dirt around the stump. We switched out, rotating between ourselves for who stood watch duty. After Elita, Chromia took a turn, followed by Arcee and finally me. A half hour later, we were at that point we could simply cut the roots off and pull the stump out. Unfortunately that is the same time we came across trouble. I heard the sound of something scurrying in the jungle. Something big.

"What was that?" Arcee asked, looking up as my own optics scanned our surroundings.

Suddenly an eerie laughed burst into our previously silent clearing. "Well, well, well," a creepy femme voice said, setting me instantly on edge. "If it isn't Arcee. And you have more partners for me to snuff." As the being spoke, a form crawled out from the shrubbery, purple optics gleaming with hatred. She had eight legs that reminded me of a spider and her armor was mostly black with purple and a bit of gold.

"Airachnid!" Arcee said and I could hear the hatred toward this being in her voice.

"You remember me," the spider bot said, sounding all too creepy.

With a roar, Arcee dashed toward Airachnid in fury.

"Arcee!" I called out. "Wait!"

But Arcee didn't listen, she just continued. Airachnid dodged her attack and dashed off, our blue femme giving chase.

"ARCEE!" I yelled at the bot, but she continued to ignore me. "Ugh." I turned to her sisters. "I think it's time for that back-up. I'm going after Arcee, stay here with whatever it is we're digging up."

"Are you sure you don't want me to come with?" Chromia asked.

"I'm sure," I said. "Between Arcee and I, I'm sure we can stay alive until back-up arrives…but I won't complain if you come save our afts…"

I didn't wait to hear their answer before darting in the direction Arcee had chased Airachnid. It wasn't too hard to follow the trail, as he scorch marks and broken limbs were clear sign of a struggle. Plus could vaguely hear vaguely the sounds of a fight. They had moved far in a brief amount of time. When I caught up, Airachnid had Arcee pinned with one hand and several of her spider legs were keeping her limbs pinned so she couldn't fight back.

"I'm going to enjoy this," Airachnid said.

"Stop right there, Airachnid," I said and with a battle cry, I leapt and tackled her away from Arcee before she could react to my presence.

We rolled across the ground and I flinched when I hit the ground on my door wings, but we rolled some more and as we were in the air I gave a hard kick to my opponent. Airachnid flew into a tree, grunting as she hit it, and I was able to land on my feet, though I had to crouch to keep from falling as I slid forward.

"You should've stayed with the others," Arcee said, walking up next to me. "Airachnid's too dangerous."

"Arcee, it's poor judgment for you to fight her alone," I said.

Airachnid's laugh cut off any more reprimand I had for her. "Two for one," she said. "I'm gonna take that artifact for myself, but first I'm going to enjoy destroying you and your partner, Arcee."

The spider bot leapt into action again. The battle began again. Arcee deployed her blades on the side of her arms and swung at Airachnid, only to be blocked by our opponent. At the same time, I was attempting to get through her defenses as well, but her spider legs were my block. Airachnid threw her own attacks as well and it was annoying how good she appeared to be at keeping her attention split.

_We need a plan,_ I thought to myself, crossing my arms to block a jab of one of the legs trying to impale me.

Getting a thought, I activated my Ion Blaster in my right hand and fired at our opponent. Unfortunately, she turned her head slightly just in time to see it and she leapt out of the way. Arcee stumbled a step, having been in mid swing when Airachnid suddenly moved and my shot went on to hit a tree, leaving a nice sized scorch mark on it. Airachnid hissed and shot what appeared to be a web my way, but I moved to the side to avoid it. Then our opponent fled.

"Argh," Arcee said and ran after her again.

"Arcee!" I was close to whining at her this time. I gave a frustrated sigh as I darted after her.

We came to a rocky area, with cliffs on both sides. The vegetation was still heavy, but as much as it was before, leaving the rocky cliff sides exposed to the air and sight.

"Be careful," I said. "She could be anywhere."

"I know," Arcee said.

I looked around, trying to find our opponent as we walked through the valley. I would've preferred it if we had returned to the others when Airachnid fled rather than chasing her down. I was just about to turn to check with Arcee on her progress when a white thing flew past me. I turned to watch it, wide opticed as it hit Arcee directly and took her with it to the cliff wall.

"Arcee!" I said, trying really hard not to panic.

I ran over and reached to start prying the web off of her.

"Shade'! Get out of here!" Arcee said, optics wide as Airachnid laughed again from her hiding spot.

"Not without you," I said, grunting a little in my effort to get the web off.

"Shade'," Arcee said. "You don't understand. She's offline many bots before you and she won't hesitate to offline you as well, especially since you have a connection to me. Why do you think I wanted to fight her alone?"

"And get yourself offlined? I wasn't about to allow that Arcee," I said. "Not on my watch. And I'm sure Optimus would agree with me that fighting her alone is a bad idea."

I was just getting a piece away from the cliff face when I briefly looked up in time to see something green flying toward me, smoking a little. I leapt back and out of the way, leaving the green stuff to hit the ground and I watched as it melted the rock it landed on. Acid.

Pushing aside the fear I felt, I activated my Ion Blasters and turned around, looking for the spider bot I knew was responsible for the attack. I heard her laugh again and moved my aim to where I thought it came from and fired. A form leapt out from where I was firing and before I could re-aim, Airachnid was suddenly very much in my personal space.

_Dang she's fast,_ I thought to myself as I blocked a jab from one of her many spider legs.

Airachnid hissed, jabbing at me from the other side, only to be blocked again. In a movement faster than I could keep up with while trying to keep track of all her limbs, she reached up and grabbed me by the throat, pushing me against the cliff wall only a little bit away from where Arcee was pinned.

"Shade'!" Arcee called, distress clear in her voice.

I grunted, bring my hands up to try to pry her grip off my neck as I kicked out at Airachnid. She only hissed again and one of her lower spider legs jabbed into my left pede and I had to hold back a pained cry.

"I'm going to kill you slowly while Arcee watches helplessly," Airachnid said, hissing as some of that green acid dripped from her mouth.

"No!" Arcee said and I was vaguely aware of the sounds that meant she was struggling against her webbed prison.

I pulled my head back as far as I could as Airachnid creepily moved her face closer to mine. I closed my optics, not bothering to hide my fear now. However, before the inevitable came, Airachnid was suddenly thrown from me and I fell to the ground, landing on my hands and knees as I panted, staring at the ground with wide optics.

"Optimus! Springer!" Arcee called, sounding relieved.

I looked up to see the two approaching, Optimus firing some more shots at the retreating spider bot.

"Looks like we made it just in time," Springer said, moving to release Arcee. "What were you thinking going after Airachnid on your own?"

"She killed Tailgate," Arcee said harshly. "She'll pay."

"Arcee," Optimus said. "It was foolish to attempt to fight Airachnid on your own. You both should've stayed with the others."

I looked away, knowing he was right.

"It's not Shadebreaker's fault, Optimus," Arcee said. "I was the one who ignored her and went after Airachnid. She only came because of that. And she did save my aft earlier."

"Quite brave of our new Prime," Springer said with a grin.

"Brave? Brave?" I asked incredulously. "I wasn't brave, I was terrified!"

"Nonetheless," Optimus said. "You have shown a great care for your fellow Autobot. That is good in a leader." He held out a hand to help me up.

"Yeah, yeah," I said, grabbing hold of his hand and letting him help me up. I flinched at the pain in my leg and leaned against the cliff wall for support. "She's my friend, of course I'm gonna care. I care for all my fellow bots. We're a team, a family if you will."

Optimus nodded in understanding.

"Hey kid," Springer said, causing me to look over at him. "For the record, courage isn't the absence of fear. It's the ability to fight anyway even though you're afraid."

"Now let us see about this artifact," Optimus said. "So we can get you back to base and your leg looked at."

I nodded and allowed Optimus to help me walk back to the others. It was a longer walk than I had thought it would be. The fight had taken us further than I had thought it had. I guessed it wasn't really that easy to gauge distance traveled when so focused on the battle itself. I stumbled and almost fell a few times, but Optimus was quick to steady me whenever I did.

After we made it back to the clearing, the others finished unearthing the artifact and Optimus, having let me sit a large tree root, retrieved something from the hole that had been underneath the tree stump. It appeared to be a sword, crafted with such elegance I couldn't help but stare at it. It looked exactly like the sword Prima had used in the battle against Liege Maximo. I watched as Optimus held the sword in reverence as it glowed just as brightly as it had in the vision the Thirteen had shown me.

"What is it?" Springer asked.

"A relic of the Thirteen," I said in awe. I was amazed that it was here and we had just found it.

"The Star Saber," Optimus said.

"Star Saber?" Chromia asked.

Optimus nodded. "It was the sword of Prima, the leader of the Thirteen," he said.

"But what's it doing on Earth?" Springer asked.

"That is a good question," Optimus said. "We can only guess."

"It's pretty awesome though," I said. "You know, since we have it and not the Cons."

"Indeed," Optimus said.

At that point, Optimus, Arcee and I returned to the base, since my pede needed looked at. After dropping me off in the med bay though, Optimus left again to help get the Energon from the jungle when he got a comm from the team that they had found it. First Aid saw to Arcee while Ratchet inspected my pede and patched it up. I tried to ignore the warm feeling in my spark as I stared up at the ceiling as he worked. He had given me an anesthesia so I didn't feel what he was doing, but I was aware he was still working. It was a little awkward being this close to the mech my spark claimed I loved. I still didn't believe that he could love me back.

"There," Ratchet said, pulling back from his work. "You're all fixed, but you are to remain here until it is fully healed."

"Right," I said with a sigh in my voice. I could almost feel the look Ratchet gave me before he sighed.

"Shadebreaker," he said and I had to ignore another warm feeling at hearing him address me again. "Are you feeling ok?"

"I'm fine," I said a little guardedly. "Just tired."

"Then get some rest," Ratchet told me. "You've had a long day."

I yawned, nodding before I closed my optics to try to get some recharge.


	29. Another Foe

**A/N: **Many of you already know this, but I'm gonna say something for those who don't. I have declared war on Satan, and yes I am still fighting. He lost one battle, but there are still more. I still would like your prayers as I fight this war against The Enemy. Don't throw down your weapons yet, cause it ain't over.

**Scripture of the Update: **Still part of my war against Satan.

"_Let not mercy and truth forsake you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, and so find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man." ~Proverbs 3:3-4, New King James Version_

Words to live by. :)

**Author's Replies:**

**ilikeanimeandmanga: **Indeed.

**Mercedes Wolfcry: **Lol. Glad you enjoyed it. :D

**Jaacs McHenry: **Mush will come. :)

**FoxyAlterEgos: **Indeed they do. It is a very huge responsibility. It's not just a leader, it's a Prime. o.o And yes, Arcee let her emotions get the better of her.

**Lunarshadowangel: **chpt 24-Indeed. Chpt 28-Glad you liked it. ^.^

**xVentressx: **Lol. I love long chapters too! :D

**Devil-O-Angel: **You'll have to wait and see. ;)

**Akira Alvina: **Yup. Who doesn't other than Shade'? Lol. Indeed he does. "Long review is long." That cracked me up. Lol. Is it related to Long Cat per chance? *curious* Lol. Wait no more! :D

**KayleeChiara: **Glad you liked it. Hard to not be, as a reader. ;) You are welcome. :)

**Invader Ivy: **Sweet! :D

**Sailor Shinzo: **Ditto. And no she hasn't….didn't you observe that a couple chapters ago? BTW(in relation to a review you made on Sci's story), Sci, changed Silas's name on purpose. That is why he is "Clancy Arkeville" in his and my story. We wanted a name that was funny. And though "Leland Bishop" doesn't sound to fit a psychopath such as Silas, we didn't think it was funny enough.

**CatGirlFireFlare: **Thanks! Glad you liked it. :)

**Sci-Fifan95: **Indeed. Lol, indeed. :) And again, indeed. :)

**Luna Prime- Awesomeness: **D: Don't smack Ratchet! Lol. Glad you liked it. ^.^

**Jazz-Transformers: **Don't worry, we all have those moments. :)

**Jayna Prime: **Glad you liked it. Lol. :D

**pokemonjkl: **Be patient my young reader. :D

**Mikaela the Cat: **Hehe. Maybe we should have an intervention, huh? Lol. Glad you liked it.

**GalaxyWarrioress1234: **LOL! Indeed! XD Glad you liked it. :)

**Princess Thil Galel: **chpt 27-Thanks! :D chpt 28-Hehe, don't worry 'bout it. :)

**Vivian Hale: **Hehe. I can be impatient too at times. :) You're welcome. I know a ride is nice once in a while. :) Glad you guys liked it. :D

**A/N2: **Just thought I'd mention something before going to the chapter. I know Silas's real name isn't Clancy Arkeville, but Leland Bishop. We, meaning Sci and I, did that on purpose. We wanted his first name to be funny to be had by a psychopathic person such as Silas. Though Leland is an odd name for a bad guy, we thought Clancy was funnier. :D

**Chapter 29: Another Foe**

**~Med Bay, Autobot Base, Shadebreaker's PoV~**

"Ratchet," I said, sitting cross-legged on the berth as I faced the back of the white and red medic I had fallen for. It had been a couple days since I had fully realized that was why I felt the way I did when around him and I had not gained the courage to tell him my feelings.

"Yes, Shadebreaker?" he asked, his tone professional. Oh, and he was still pulling that professional crap.

"Am I allowed to leave yet?" I asked as calmly as I could. Even if I knew he didn't love me back, I knew he usually didn't tell me 'no' unless I was asking to do something stupid or dangerous to my health.

"After you drink your Energon," Ratchet said, handing me a cube of said substance. "You may go."

"Thank-you," I said quietly, accepting the cube easily. My spark fluttered as our hands brushed each other as the cube passed between us.

_Why can't I bring myself to tell him?_ I wondered to myself. _Because you are scared. _I probably should be worried that I had just answered myself. _Of what? _I figured an internal conversation might help. _That he doesn't love you back. _I answered my own question again.

I paused in my sip of Energon and stared at it momentarily. I looked up at the white and red medic without lifting my head. He was hard at work on something, though I couldn't tell what. My spark was warm, knowing I was in the same room as the mech I loved. I felt a pang when I reminded myself that he likely didn't feel the same way about me.

I forced my thoughts to something else as I drank my Energon. I wondered about Optimus and Elita. There had to be a way I could convince Optimus that he could allow himself that distraction. Personally I believed he deserved to be happy, and I was sure the rest of the Bots would agree with me. But I was not sure how I was going to get the two to just tell each other they liked each other. Elita thought that Optimus did not like her, and Optimus believed he was not allowed to be distracted by love due to his position as Prime.

_Maybe I should have my creator talk to him,_ I thought to myself.

After I finished my Energon, I hopped off the medical berth, told Ratchet I'd see him later and then I went to head to my quarters. I passed by Jazz on the way and gave him a wave. He immediately changed directions and started walking next to me.

"Hey Shade'," Jazz said easily, having adjusted to my new name as quickly as the rest of us. "Did Ah miss an'thin' while Ah was gone?"

"Miss anything? Hmm," I responded with a thoughtful expression. "Nothing I'm sure you haven't already been told."

"Ya don' know dat," Jazz grinned. He then grew serious. "How ar' things b'tween you an' da doc bot?"

"Ratchet?" I asked. "Same old same old I guess." And my spark was still sad it hadn't gone further, but I was trying to ignore it for the time being. As I had told Flare-up, you never know. "He's been rather distant since our discovery that I am a Prime. Though that in itself I am still trying to wrap my own processor around."

"Ah'm sure you'll make a good Prime," Jazz said, patting me on the back as he grinned. "Ya care and ya got a good head on ya shouldas. And ya got OP to guide you."

I ducked my head in embarrassment, feeling my door wings lift a little in a bit more confidence knowing that everyone seemed to believe in my abilities. No matter what though, through my optics, Optimus would always be a rank higher than I would be, even if we were technically the same rank.

"As for Ratch', he'll come 'round," Jazz said. "Dat bot can' stay distant from ya, Ah guarantee it."

I gave Jazz an odd look. "What does that mean?" I asked.

Jazz grinned and I got the feeling he was winking conspiratorially underneath his visor. "You'll find out," he said.

I gave him another odd look as we came to the door to my quarters. We stopped and I just looked at Jazz. "Someday, I'm gonna figure out how to read your hidden meanings," I claimed.

Jazz grinned. "Good luck wit' dat!" he said cheerfully.

I watched as Jazz left cheerfully and raised an optic ridge. I sighed, shaking my head at the mech. I decided that if I tried to understand everything Jazz said, I probably wouldn't get a whole lot of thinking done on other things. So I just sighed again and entered my quarters, looking around briefly before walking over to my stuff-filled desk. I really needed to put in a shelf or something for my souvenirs I was gathering. My old wolf and fox plushies I had from when I was human sat on the desk along with my old laptop, flash drives, scrapbook and CDs that were also from that time. I also had a couple golf balls from the farm as souvenirs from when I had visited them after my transformation. The only other thing I had was a piece of scrap metal from the escape pod that had held Chromia's message and a rock from the cave where we first discovered my ability to smell Energon.

I took the Blades of Time out of my subspace and looked briefly at the relic. I had been surprised when Optimus had given it to me. I still was not sure I deserved to possess a relic of the Thirteen, but his logic made sense. It was left by my creator so it would make sense that I get it now. I wondered if my creator would mind me dropping in for a visit sometime. I hoped he wouldn't be angry if I did, because now that I could come and go as I pleased to the Pocket Universe, I planned to do so. The thought was in my mind even as I set the relic down on my desk, deciding that it would be best if I didn't carry it around with me.

I sighed, pushing the thoughts out of my head for the time being. I didn't want to worry about whether or not Vector would be receptive of me popping in on him and the others at the moment. I left my quarters and headed for the ops center. I wondered if anything interesting would happen today. I was fine with having a slow day though. I thought we all deserved a day where nothing happened.

When I reached the ops center, I found that hardly anyone was around. The twins were on the opposite side, whispering conspiratorially to each other and making me believe they were planning a prank of some kind. Jazz was leaning against the wall near the main computer, where Prowl was manning the device. The two appeared to be discussing something, but Jazz looked up when I walked in and waved me over.

"Hey," I said, giving a wave.

"Ya al'ight?" Jazz asked, looking concerned.

"Why wouldn't I be?" I asked. _It's not like you know I love a mech who couldn't love me back,_ I thought to myself.

"You do appear to be a little down," Prowl noted. He glanced at my door wings, that weren't in their usual tilt.

I looked at the black and white mech, realizing I hadn't really actually met the stoic bot yet. He had door wings, much like my own and Bumblebee's, and a red crest on his head. He had a yellow visor covering his optics, leaving me to wonder if they were yellow as well or blue. I would think they would be blue, but I had no way of knowing. He had a star on his chest, indicating that he had been a law enforcer before the war, that had the insignia inside it. His expression was emotionless, giving nothing away to how he may or may not feel.

"I am bored," I supplied. It was a lie, and I could tell they knew it was a lie.

"Shade'," Jazz said and he went to move forward but Prowl stopped him.

"If she does not want to tell us, she does not have to," Prowl told the silver mech.

Jazz huffed at his friend's intervention. He backed down, but the look he gave me clearly meant he was gonna be hunting me down later.

"Sorry Jazz," I apologized. "Let me handle my own things by myself. There is no reason to involve you."

"So there _is_ something!" Jazz said, as if he had just proved something he really wanted to prove.

I gave him a flat look. I looked around. "So, where's everybody at?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Arcee, Bumblebee and Bulkhead are with their charges running test on some new upgrades," Prowl supplied, cutting off whatever Jazz was about to say. "Everybot else is on a mission, we detected Decepticon activity on an island known as Diego Garcia."

I raised an optic ridge. "Do we know what they're after?" I asked.

"All we know for certain until the team returns is that it is home to a joint military base between the United States and the United Kingdom," Prowl informed me.

"Aren't there usually a lot of humans on a military base?" I asked, growing concerned.

Prowl nodded. "That is exactly why Optimus went," he said.

I was about to say something when the computer suddenly beeped and Prowl quickly turned to it. He typed some things onto the computer before speaking.

"A distress signal," Prowl said. "From a human military task force. I also just received a comm. from Optimus, it appears the military is held up and Fowler has requested our assistance in saving them."

"Where?" I asked.

"Just outside the Nevada border," Prowl said.

"Open a ground bridge," I said. "Come on, Jazz, looks like we got a mission. Prowl, you coming?"

Prowl nodded and I nodded back.

"Hey Sides, can you man the Ground Bridge?" I called to the red twin.

"Of course!" Sideswipe said, giving me a mock salute before he and his twin took Prowl's place at the computer.

I transformed down, the two visored mechs doing the same before we sped through the Ground Bridge. We came out on the other end in a canyon-like area, with several paths leading away from our position. I looked around as Prowl and Jazz did the same. It was clear that we were in a deserty area, not all that different from the area the base was located in. There were eight paths leading away from where was stood, all with sheer rock walls on either side that reached well above us. The paths, unfortunately, were too narrow for us to walk in any semblance of side-by-side. Only one of us would be able to fit and we'd either have to split up or walk in a straight line.

"The signal is coming from this direction," Prowl said, indicating a direction that had three of the paths headed in. "However, I cannot pinpoint which of these paths will lead us to the mission task force."

"We'll split up then," I said. "We can cover more ground that way….and it'll be less claustrophobic."

"Says da femme who crawled through air ducts," Jazz said, grinning.

I rolled my optics. "You're never gonna let me live that down, are you?" I asked.

"Nope," Jazz said obnoxiously.

Prowl sighed. "Focus you two," he said.

"Right," I said. "I'll take the left path, Jazz, you take the middle and Prowl, the right."

Both mechs nodded and we separated. It was only a short time before I noticed that the path I was on, had twisted away from the other two. I began to grow wary and nervous and suddenly I wished I had either gone with Jazz or had a lot more space to work with. I kept feeling like something wasn't right. The path also grew a little narrower, just enough to where I had to fold my door wings back to keep them from scrapping the cliff walls. I would've climbed out, but it was too small of a space to even think about it. I didn't want to strain my door wings any more than I had to. To climb I would have to flatten them on my back in this case. Folding them back was one thing, as it isn't painful or strenuous, however, forcing them to lay flat hurt a little and strained them.

_Yup, not climbing unless I have to,_ I thought, praying that the path would widen out soon. _Couldn't make a quick climb though….perhaps it would be better in the long run…_

I sighed, deciding I best check on my proximity to the signal. I set my scanners to a higher power and searched for the signal that had brought us here. I was able to find where Jazz and Prowl both were in relation to where I was, but not the signal. I paused a moment, a little confused That feeling that something was wrong grew and I shifted ever so slightly in my unease. I opened a comm. to my partners.

"**Jazz, Prowl, either of you still picking up that signal?" **I asked over it.

"**Negative, fem boss bot," **Jazz said. I rolled my optics at the new nickname.

"**Don't call me that," **I said.

"**Why not? It fits," **Jazz said cheekily. I inwardly and outwardly groaned.

"**I am no longer picking up the signal either," **Prowl reported, stopping any form of argument that may have popped up.

"**Alright, I think we should back track and regroup," **I told them. **"I'm getting a bad feeling about this."**

"**Gotcha fem boss bot," **Jazz said and I could just hear the grin he had on his face.

_He's gonna be unbearable,_ I thought to myself.

"**On my way back," **Prowl reported.

I paused and considered my options. I could walk backwards, climb and then climb back down when I reached where I was going, or attempt to turn around in this small space. I sighed, realizing the impossibility of trying to turn around. I lifted a foot, intending to start walking backwards, when I suddenly froze. I froze because several little red dots suddenly appeared on my armor. I barely had time to think 'not good' before I felt a sudden pain through my entire body before falling unconscious.

**~With Jazz, Normal PoV~**

Jazz grinned as he turned his attention away from the comm. He knew it made Shadebreaker twitch a little in irritation every time someone mentioned her new status. She didn't think she was good enough for it and was very reluctant in fully accepting it. He hoped that by facing it, she would gain confidence in her abilities, as Optimus had. He still remembered the beginning of the war, when Orion Pax was first made Optimus Prime. The mech had also always been second guessing and questioning whether he was the right bot for the job. But he came around and soon enough so would Shadebreaker.

His path had taken him pretty much straight from where he had begun and had actually widened a little. So, unlike Shadebreaker, he didn't have a difficult time turning around. He headed back in the direction he had come from, moving at a faster pace than before. In his experience, when a member of the team had a bad feeling, it likely meant that trouble was brewing and you should never ignore it. He also had a growing sense that something was off. When they had split up, they had been reading the distress signal, but now none of them could find it. It didn't add up to anything good.

Jazz didn't slow his walk when the path narrowed. He was agile enough to move quickly through the small space without so much as scratching his paint. He was glad to exit back out into large area they had started in, though it worried him that the only one there was Prowl.

"Shade' not return yet?" he asked the stoic mech.

Prowl shook his head. "She has not," he said. "I am sure she is making her way here."

"**Prime to Jazz," **Optimus' voice suddenly came over the comm.

"**Jazz here, watcha need Prime?" **Jazz asked.

"**Where are you? I cannot reach Shadebreaker," **Optimus said.

Jazz felt apprehension take over his whole frame. **"We were following a military distress signal," **he said. **"Agent Fowler asked for our assistance."**

"**That wasn't me," **said the mentioned liaison. **"MECH has been playing with our heads."**

"**What do you mean?" **Prowl asked, joining the conversation.

"**It turns out Megatron's second-in-command, Starscream, has aligned himself with MECH," **Fowler said.

"**It was him at Diego Garcia," **Arcee said. **"He was baiting us."**

"**Seems Silas mimicked my voice to send you bots that message," **Fowler said.

"**This isn' good then," **Jazz said. He searched the area with his scanners, but came up with him and Prowl being the only bots in the area. **"Cause Ah can' find Shade's signal."**

"**Do some recon and then return to base," **Optimus ordered.

"**Gotcha boss bot," **Jazz said.

**~Two Hours Later, Autobot Base, Normal PoV~**

Needless to say, Ratchet was not very happy when Jazz and Prowl returned to base without Shadebreaker. He was even more unhappy when they confirmed MECH being behind the distress signal and that it appeared they had captured the femme.

"Stinkin' cannibals," Bulkhead said, banging his fist together with a loud bang. "First they cannibalized Breakdown and now they probably intend to do the same to Shadebreaker."

"Shadebreaker is resilient," Prowl said. "I am sure she will put up a fight."

"We have to get her out of there," Ratchet said. "MECH are monsters. Who knows what damage they will inflict if we don't rescue her right away."

"They think they can botnap one of our Primes and get away with it?" Springer said, slamming a fist into his palm. "I'd like to see try to run when we get there."

Bumblebee whirled.

"Bee's right," Arcee said. "Shade's not just one of our Primes. She is our friend. She's part of this family."

"No one disagrees with that, Arcee," Optimus said. "Agent Fowler, do you know anything about MECH's current whereabouts?"

"My men are looking," Agent Fowler said. "But are, as yet, unsure on their location. I know about as much as you do."

Optimus nodded. "Prowl, help Ratchet search for Shadebreaker's spark signal. If we pinpoint it, we pinpoint MECH," he said.

"And then we can save Shade'," Ironhide agreed.

"In the meantime, the rest of us will rotate on searches and patrols," Optimus said. "And keep an optic out for any MECH, or Decepticon, activity. Remember, do not engage the enemy by yourself."

"Yes sir," most of the bots said. The ones who didn't, simply nodded their acknowledgment.

As Ratchet moved to the main computer with Prowl, his spark clenched. He should've kept her in med bay longer. If he hadn't released her, she wouldn't have gone on the mission and she wouldn't have been captured. The poor femme was always getting into some kind of trouble. Be it Decepticons, a glitch and now MECH is added to that list. He could only pray they could get to her before the monsters tore apart. They better hope that she is still in one piece, otherwise they would be in for it more so than before. As he thought that, his spark flared in a protective manner.

_Why can't she stay out of trouble? _Ratchet thought as he worked. _Can't she see it worries me how much trouble she gets into? _He paused a moment at that before sighing. _Of course, she is an oblivious femme at times. Yet others she is so observant._ He recalled how she always seemed to know when something was bothering him. At least, when he wasn't avoiding her anyway.

Ratchet sighed again, trying every method he could think of to find Shadebreaker's spark signal. Prowl added in quite a bit of ways he hadn't thought of as well. It was a lengthy and drawn out process, taking an entire to get through them all. Every single attempt, however, came up with nothing. With every failed attempt, his spark gave a small pang of pain and guilt. He wanted her to be back, to be safe. Every minute she was gone was another minute she was in danger of being torn apart by those monsters called MECH.

"**Optimus to base," **Optimus's voice came through the comm.

"We hear you Optimus," Ratchet said. "Have you found any sign of MECH?"

"**Affirmative," **Optimus said. **"I'm sending you my coordinates."**

"I got them," Ratchet informed him.

**~MECH's Current Base, Shadebreaker's PoV~**

When I came to, the first thing I was aware of was uncomfortable pressure on my wrists and ankle. When I tried to move away, I realized the pressure was from restraints, holding me down to the surface I was laying upon. I tried to pull a hand free, but the only thing I succeeded in doing was hurt my wrist. The more I pulled, the more the restraint seemed to dig into the cables in my wrist. I growled a little at the fact.

"You know that's pointless," a very familiar voice said and I heard footsteps.

I looked in the direction the voice came from as I stopped my struggling. "Starscream? What do you want?" I growled.

Starscream chuckled darkly. "Don't give me that look, Shadebreaker," he said. "Or should I say, Amelia?"

I narrowed my optics at him.

"Yes, I know very well who you are," Starscream said. "I must thank you for giving me the idea of leaving the Decepticons."

"You helped me before," I said. "Why not now?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Starscream said, sneering down at me. "I merely let you go, cause you had lost your usefulness."

_Figures,_ I thought to myself. _Starscream is notorious for being two-faced and selfish._

"Besides, MECH is a good ally so far," Starscream said. "I give them assistance in exchange for a way to find Energon."

"What kind of assistance?" I asked.

"Hmm, well I suppose it wouldn't hurt to tell you," Starscream said thoughtfully. He paced around the table I was strapped to. "Considering you'll soon be nothing more than a science experiment."

I growled as a small pulse of fear flooded my spark.

Starscream chuckled darkly, seeming to enjoy seeing the slight panic in my optics. "No, you won't be able to stop us any time soon," he decided. "I offer them insider knowledge. And, of course, provide the Bots with a sufficient distraction while they carry out their plans." He continued to pace around the table as he spoke.

"Plans?" I asked.

"They intend to build an army," Starscream elaborated. "Of transforming robots. I have supplied them with some information, which is all supplied in the computers in this room, but they want to really dig into a bot and learn the intricate details. That's where you come in."

I did my best to not show the fear that sent through my systems. "And you think they wouldn't just as soon take you apart?" I asked.

"We have a deal," Starscream said, sneering at me. "They won't tear me apart as long as they get what they need from you. And here's another secret, the Autobots will never find you. So if I were you, I would settle down and go with it. It'll only be more painful if you struggle." He tapped one of my restraints with a single clawed digit before standing up straight with an evil expression on his face. He was getting sick pleasure in the knowledge of what was going to happen to me.

"You're evil," I growled.

"A matter of opinion," Starscream said.

"Starscream," a different, a human, voice called. "Leave us."

"Of course," Starscream said and soon enough he disappeared to some other place.

I looked over to find a man standing on a balcony, well above where I was laying. He was wearing dark green clothes that reminded me of some kind of military apparel. His face was covered in scars and he had white hair. Something about his stance, expression and general aura reminded me of Megatron. And if this was MECH, then what Shadowstreaker had told me about them was enough reason for me to be concerned.

"Who are you?" I asked, even though I had a pretty good idea.

"I am Silas, leader of MECH," the man said. "And your worst nightmare."

I growled and fought against the restraints, wanting to squish that man. He called himself 'Silas', but if he was the leader of MECH then he was most likely the Clancy Arkeville that Shadowstreaker had told me about.

"It's pointless to struggle," Silas said. "Starscream made sure those restraints would prevent escape. He also told us some pretty interesting information about you."

_Oh great, _I thought. _The psychopath is interested. That can't be good._

"You were once human, like ourselves," Silas said. "And now you are machine. I want to know how you tick and how I could replicate the process. Full disclosure: we're gonna open you up and take a apart." The 'piece by piece' part was implied. "Unfortunately for you, you will not survive the process."

_I have to distract him, _I thought. "You're insane," I said, pulling slightly on my right wrist restraint. "Have you ever thought about seeing a psychiatrist….Clancy?"

As Silas's look darkened, I saw some of the soldiers stifling a laugh. "Who told you that name?" he asked dangerously.

"So it is your name then," I said, grinning a little now that his focus had shifted.

"NO!" he said, surprisingly loud and objecting. "Whoever told you that lied!"

"Clancy, hmm, it sounds more like a name for a butler," I said. I grinned as mischievousness filled me. "Are you a butler on your free time? It must be fun taking food to other people who you serve. Well, they pay you for serving them at least."

"ENOUGH!" Silas bellowed. He growled at me. "You're going to wish you never did that. Open her up." He ordered the soldiers that I just realized surrounded me with machines that their use was fairly obvious. One moved close to my neck and was about to do something, but Silas stopped him. "No, leave her pain receptors on."

"But sir…!" the soldier protested, but was cut off.

"Let her feel the pain," Silas demanded. "No one makes fun of my name and gets away with it." His glare was so dark and angry that I had a feeling that if looks could kill, I'd be on fire.

The soldier seemed hesitant, but he was the only one. Whether he really didn't want me to feel pain or if it was simply he didn't want me to make a lot of noise was up for debate. The others were not hesitant, however, as they powered up the machines and moved them closer. I shrank back into the table I was strapped on, fear taking over my actions now.

_No,_ I thought. _I can't die without telling Ratchet!_ The thought only sent more panic through my systems as I realized that whatever knowledge they gained they would use against the Bots and anyone else who stood in their way.

The drill and saw were both moving closer and closer, the drill being the closest, aimed at my side. I tried to pull my wrists free again, only to find pain shooting through them and up my arm as the metal dug into the sensitive wires. The dill made it first and the moment it started digging into my side, I screamed out in agony. Even as all hope seemed lost, however, it seemed that moment was the moment that Primus, or God, one of them, decided to let fate be kind to me and end my torture before it went further.

The wall to my right literally blew apart, sending debris flying through the room, hitting several of the soldiers. A large piece rammed right into the drill, knocking it over top of me, where it flew into the previously approaching saw and sent both machines into a crash a good distance away. The machines also blew up, disintegrating a few unlucky soldiers who were near them when they blew. I could hear the sound of guns being prepared to fire as the remaining soldiers aimed their weapons at something, or someone, in the smoke.

When the smoke cleared, I saw a sight that made my spark soar. Ratchet was walking into the room, swords deployed and a not too happy expression on his face. In fact, he looked quite angry. Well, maybe 'angry' wasn't a strong enough word, as he looked well beyond that point. The soldiers fired at him, but he blocked the bullets with an arm before firing back. When the soldiers realized they were outmatched, they began a hasty retreat.

Someone at the computer was typing something, but they didn't get to finish whatever they were doing before the computers suddenly blew up. The cause was easy enough to find, as when the smoke cleared, I saw Ironhide standing with his Nucleon Shock Cannon deployed. He fired another shot into the computer's hard drive and memory cores, leaving whatever information was on it irretrievable. I could at least be thankful for that. Too bad Silas hadn't been caught in that explosion though.

"Shadebreaker," Ratchet's voice was suddenly really close and my spark warmed when I realized just how close he suddenly was. "You alright?"

When I looked at him, the anger was replaced mostly by concern and another unreadable emotion in his optics. "I'm still in one piece," I supplied the best positive I could think of at that moment that didn't include a cheesy, though sweet, 'I am now that you're here'. Now was not the time to talk about that.

His optics landed on the wound on my side inflicted by the drill-type machine. I could see his optics harden and his engine revved quietly as he searched for the release to my restraints. When he found them, the restraints snapped open and I finally was able to move. I swung my pedes over the side as I sat up and rubbed at my wrists. My wound in my side wasn't deep, but the drill had gone deep enough to tear into some sensitive wiring and had nearly broken through an important cable before Ratchet had burst in.

"Come on, let's get out of here," Ironhide said, walking over after making sure the computers were well destroyed.

I nodded and allowed Ratchet to help me up and off the table I had been strapped to. I flinched a little in discomfort and stumbled slightly, due to the sharp pain in my pedes from the tight restraints. Ratchet easily caught me before I fell, though, and I began following behind him slowly, trying to not put too much strain on my sore pedes. Ironhide brought up the rear, his Nucleon back in his subspace in favor of one of his smaller weapons. We met up with Optimus, who had apparently been held up by Starscream, who I could see fleeing the scene, and then we went back to base.

At base, Ratchet immediately ushered me to the med bay where he got to work repairing my wounds. I wanted so much to talk to him about something at that moment, but I kept quiet. He preferred silence while he worked and I was respectful of that. I twitched away with a hiss when he accidently touched a spot that was in pain.

"Be still," he ordered. His engine revved a bit, though I knew his anger wasn't directed at me so I didn't take offense. "Slaggin' humans. Just as bad as the Decepticons…" His grumbling only proved my thought that he was not angry at me. It actually made me smile as I tried my hardest to be completely still.

_Perhaps,_ I thought to myself. _It wouldn't be bad to tell him. The worst that could happen is he doesn't like me that way._ My spark was sad that that was still a possibility. I decided that I would ask Chromia some advice before talking to Ratchet.

**~Normal PoV~**

When Ratchet finished the repairs to the femme, he sighed and took a step back. "You should get some rest now," he said.

Shadebreaker yawned and nodded before curling up in her usual sleeping position. She flinched some and Ratchet reached a hand out before he realized it to try to sooth her pain. He stopped himself though, reminding himself that now was not the time to talk to her. She needed to rest first. Soon enough, her body relaxed and her door wings relaxed into the position they usually were in as she recharged.

Ratchet sighed, looking at the now recharging femme as his hand fell back to his side. He felt his spark reaching out to her, but ignored the feeling. He knew he had to tell her. He didn't want to lose her and suddenly the fact she was Prime didn't matter anymore. His spark ached at the thought that he had almost lost her before he could tell her his feelings. Again. Even if he didn't believe she could love him, he wanted her to know. He needed her to know.

"Hey Ratchet," Ironhide's voice broke him out of his thoughts and the pat on the shoulder tore is attention away from the femme he found to be beautiful.

"Ironhide," he greeted.

Ironhide looked between Ratchet and Shadebreaker. "You know you gotta tell her sooner or later," he said. "It is best heard from you. And Jazz has said that if you don't tell her soon, he will himself. If she hears from him and not you, it will only cause her pain."

Ratchet sighed. "It's not that I don't want to tell her, Ironhide," he said. "She's Prime. She deserves better."

"I think she would be very happy if you told her," Ironhide told his old friend with a knowing look in his optics. "Sometimes, you just have to give it a chance." He tapped Ratchet's chest with his knuckle. "Just follow your spark. It'll lead you to the 'how'."

Ratchet sighed, staring after the red and black mech for a moment. His attention moved back to the white and purple femme on the berth. She looked so peaceful at the moment, he almost forgot the panicked look that had been in her optics only a few hours earlier. He smiled a little, remembering a time when Miko had asked her when her birthday was, back when she was still human. Suddenly, he had an idea and he left the med bay in First Aid's servos. If he remembered right, then her birthday was tomorrow, though if she remembered that fact, he didn't know. He grinned, heading to his quarters to prepare for his task.


	30. Of Card Games and Confessions

**A/N: **Well, it certainly took me long enough didn't it? However, I think you all will be satisfied with this chapter. :)

Before I move on, I must inform you all that it is getting close to vacation time for me. I have twelve days before I leave for Florida for a few weeks. I do not know how much writing I will be able to do while down there, so it is hard to tell when the next update for this story will come. Good thing this isn't a cliff hanger chapter! :D

**Scripture of the Update: **For some reason I feel like saying boomdeyada, so "Boomdeyada.". Anyway, the scripture is the following:

"_Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do so. Do not say to your neighbor, 'Go and come back, and tomorrow I will give it,' when you have it with you. Do not devise evil against your neighbor, for he dwells by you for safety's sake. Do not strive with a man without cause, if he has done you no harm." ~Proverbs 3:27-30 New King James Version_

**Author's Replies:**

**Sci-Fifan95: **Yup, MECH is subject to hate. :| Hehe, it's fun making fun of bad guys. :D Thanks bro. ^.^

**ilikeanimeandmanga: **Indeed.

**Mercedes Wolfcry: **Glad you liked it. :) And yes, torture is blech. Lol.

**Sailor Shinzo: **We will see. *wonders if you even read my replies*

**pokemonjkl: **Yes, yes he is. :D

**Jaacs McHenry: **Lol. Yup, it's coming alright.

**Jazz-Transformers: **I'm sorry I take a while. Why be ashamed? When my God is bigger than anything? :D Hehe, you'll find out. ;D

**FoxyAlterEgos: **Yep, she does. Lol. And yes they do. Read and find out. ;) I don't know why humans are cruel. I don't understand those people. :|

**Luna Prime- Awesomeness: **Lol. Glad you liked it. :)

**Mikaela the Cat: **Ratchet's really stubborn, ain't he? Lol. I wasn't actually following the episodes anymore, but looking at it that could be accurate for the time-frame. :D

**KayleeChiara: **Glad you like it so much. :D

**Akira Alvina: **Glad I cheered you up. :) Interesting indeed. :) Yes. :| No soup for Clancy. *snickers at his name* That is definitely about Jazz. Thanks for the prayers. In your previous review you said, "Long review is long" so I asked if "Long Review" is related to "Long Cat". It was supposed to be a joke.

**anon: **Jazz is indeed awesome. :) That is awesome. :D We'll find out, won't we? :D

**4elementsfan4621: **It's alright. :) Glad you liked it. :D True, true and true.

**ToaKage: **Thanks! :D I do strive to keep in character. :)

**RatchetsGirl: **Glad you like it. :)

**Jayna Prime: **Thanks. :) Glad you liked it.

**Vivian Hale: **I don't know. Lol. There is a Dr. Arkeville in G1 though who worked with Megatron. Inevitability doesn't always prevent stubbornness. Lol. I agree Jazz. :) If someone liked Clancy, it'd be weird and worrisome. I also get into stories I read…or write. Glad you guys have enjoyed the story so far. :)

**Princess Thil Galel: **Hehe. If you read, you'll find out.

**CatGirlFireflare: **:D I am glad you liked it so much! ^.^

**RatchetXxXShadebreaker: **…Your screenname wouldn't happen to have anything to do with this story, would it? :) I do finally have an update. I apologize for the length of time it takes…

And NOW! On with THE SCENE..I mean THE CHAPTER! XD

**Chapter 30: Of Card Games and Confessions**

_I wasn't sure where I was, just that I had to get out of there. I ran through the metal corridor, looking frantically for any sign of escape._

_I turned down a hall a froze. My optics widened as I stared at the room I was so familiar with. The ops center. But that wasn't what had my optics widening._

_Energon covered the floor and walls. The computer terminals were all destroyed, sparks flying from them. The lifeless bodies of Prowl and the twins laid around._

_My intakes hitched and I made a dash through the room and headed for the med bay. Surely someone would be ok and could tell me what was going on._

_When I reached the med bay I froze again. There were humans dressed the same way the MECH agents had been scattered around, carrying parts around. But that's not really what had me frozen._

_On the other side of the med bay was Ratchet and First Aid, both fallen and their chassis were torn open and parts missing from their internals. The cold and lifeless appearance of their optics, Ratchet's in particular, is what had me falling to my knees._

_Vaguely, I heard laughter. Dark laughter. I wasn't sure who it was coming from, but it gave me the chills as I stared in horror, even as the people around me aimed their weapons at me, their intentions clear…_

I onlined with a start and bolted into a sitting up straight in a movement so fast it disoriented me. I flinched at the sharp pain in my side and placed a servo over it as I looked around.

"Take it easy, you are still healing," I heard First Aid say and I realized I was in the med bay and everything was fine.

"Where's Ratchet?" I asked, still a bit panicked.

"He's around," First Aid said vaguely. He looked at me in concern. "Are you ok? Are you in any pain?"

"My side hurts, but that is to be expected," I said, rubbing at the spot where I had had my wound. Looking at it now, you would've never guessed that it had been brutally attacked by a drill the previous day. Ratchet could definitely work wonders. "And my wrist is sore."

"Just rest," First Aid said. "I'll give you an anesthetic to numb the pain, but you need to remain here."

I sighed disappointedly. "Ok, ok," I said.

First Aid administered the anesthetic while I forced myself to remain still. I was still uncomfortable with having anyone do medical stuff to me besides Ratchet, but I was too relieved it had just been a bad dream to make a fuss. The med bay was in order. First Aid was alive, which meant the others were too.

"Happy Creation Day, by the way," First Aid said once he finished with the anesthetic.

I gave him a confused look. "Huh?" I asked.

First Aid raised an optic ridge. "Don't tell me you forgot your own birthday?" he asked.

"There's a lot I don't remember," I reminded, tilting my helm. "But if you guys know when it is, I must've mentioned it at some point…"

"From what I understand you told Miko when it was while you still human," First Aid explained.

"Oh…" I said. "I…don't remember…"

First Aid sighed. "It is alright," he said, putting a hand on my shoulder. He gave me a reassuring smile before turning back to do some work.

I frowned, wondering what I was gonna do with myself since I was confined to the med bay. I tilted my helm in thought, but couldn't find anything to do that wouldn't over exert myself. There wasn't really much I could do while sitting without someone to hang out with or a data pad to write on. I contemplated asking First Aid if he had a spare data pad I could use, but I didn't really want to bother him.

I was brought out of my thoughts when the med bay doors opened and I looked up. Jazz, Arcee, Chromia, Elita, Lunarfire, and Ironhide came in and Jazz grinned as they walked over to me.

"Well if it ain' da b-day fem!" Jazz said cheerfully.

_Why is it, everyone knows it's my birthday except me? _I thought to myself as Jazz gave me a tight hug as he grinned. The others all gave me a hug as well while wishing me a happy birthday/creation day.

"How old are you now?" Lunarfire innocently asked.

"Um," I said. _How old was I when I got here? _ "Twenty?...I think…" I was not really sure. And did my human age even still count?

"You don't know how old you are?" Lunarfire exclaimed in surprise.

"'Fire, be polite," Elita told the femmeling. "Shade' just doesn't remember a lot of things."

"Oh," Lunarfire said. She climbed up onto my berth, using her small jets to give her a boost and then hugged me. "I'm sorry."

I grinned and hugged the femmeling back. "It's ok, don't worry about it," I said. "It doesn't bother me as much as it once did."

"Well that's good!" Lunarfire chirped.

I chuckled. "Indeed," I said. I pat her helm as she moved back to sit next to me.

"It's kinda odd thinking that when I was your age I was still a sparkling," Arcee said. "And here you are fully grown."

I raised an optic ridge. "Well, I guess that would explain why I don't always act my age then," I grinned.

Ironhide chuckled. "At least you're not as bad as the twins," he said, patting me on the helm.

I tilted my helm. "They sometimes make me uncomfortable," I said. "Do they not know anything about personal space?"

"Just give them a good punch next time they invade your personal space," Chromia said. "That'll get them in line."

I rolled my optics. "It didn't seem to affect them any when Arcee did that," I said. I shook my helm. "They need to grow up."

"Yes they do," Arcee agreed. "And no one would blame you for giving them a good beat down once in a while. It might knock 'em down a notch."

"Or maybe I could just pull a prank on them," I said. "Seems that's the only thing they care about."

"Now don't stoop to their level now," Ironhide said, though he sounded amused.

"You don't think it'd be amusing to see Sunstreaker painted as a sunflower with little suns on him?" I asked, grinning. "We could call him 'Sunflower'."

Everybot started laughing at that while Lunarfire giggled away.

"And we could make Sideswipe a rose," I continued. "And call him 'Rosey'."

"T-t-that would be h-hilarious!" Jazz said. "Do ya mind if Ah borrow dat idea?"

"Sure, go for it," I said, grinning. "I'm not really the prank pulling type anyway. I can only come up with ideas. I don't have it in me to actually pull them."

"Good, cause I don't want to see what you would turn me into," Ironhide grinned.

"Don't give me that challenge," I grinned. "You might regret it later."

"Ok, change of topic," Elita said. "We should give Shade' what we got her."

"You got me something?" I asked.

"It's a practical gift," Arcee said.

"Yeah," Ironhide said. "We figured you could use a weapon besides just your guns, so we made one."

"You made a weapon?" I asked.

"Yeah. It was pretty easeh considerin' we had 'Hide," Jazz said. "He is the weapons specialist for a reason."

"We hope it will aid you whenever you have to go to battle," Chromia said. "Which may be more often now that you're a Prime. You'll have to learn to use it though."

"Indeed," I said. "So what is it?"

"It is…" Ironhide said and he reached into his subspace and pulled out a large hammer. "…this."

My optics widened. "Wow, that thing's taller than I am!" I said. "Sweet." I took the hammer into my hands and examined it.

It was white and purple in color, to match my own color scheme. I would definitely have to use both hands to wield it, though it felt right in my servos. The head of it was fairly large, but not heavy enough that I couldn't lift it. Tied just under the head was a couple feathers, one purple and the other one red.

"I added the feathers!" Lunarfire said happily. "They're for good luck!"

"Aw thanks," I said, smiling as I gave her a hug.

Lunarfire giggled. "You welcome," she said.

I held my arms out to the others. "I must give you all hugs now," I said, my tone very serious.

They chuckled and allowed me to hug them. I grinned as I did and once that was done I put the hammer into my subspace.

"So how does it feel to be older?" Arcee asked.

I shrugged. "I don't feel any different," I said.

Ironhide chuckled. "Just wait till you're my age, you'll start feeling it," he said.

I raised an optic ridge at him. "Are you calling yourself old?" I asked, humor in my voice.

"What is it the humans say? 'If the shoe fits'?" Arcee said, clearly also amused.

"Hey!" Ironhide said indignantly.

"That's ok, you're my old mech," Chromia said and kissed Ironhide.

"Ahh! Smooch alert!" Lunarfire said, waving her hands in front of her face.

We all laughed a little.

"Oh come on Lunarfire," I said, rubbing the top of her helm. "Someday, that'll be you and whatever mech is lucky enough to find a spot in your spark. Even I know that and I'm about as oblivious as they come."

"Ain' dat da truth," Jazz said, grinning.

"Not me! I'm never gonna be all smooch goochy," Lunarfire said.

"Smoochy goochy?" I repeated with confusion.

"I think the femmeling's been around the twins too much," Ironhide said with a look of amusement.

"Aw," I said. I pulled the seeker youngling into my arms and pretended to try to kiss her. "You know you want to be kissed someday."

"Ack! No!" Lunarfire protested and I switched from trying to kiss to tickling her. "Haha! S-stop! S-stop! T-that tickles!"

I allowed her to push my servos away and climb back out of my lap. She remained next to me though as I grinned. "I guess you're just too young to get it," I said. "Ah, to be young. I'd say I miss it, but it's hard to miss something you don't remember." I shrugged.

"I think you more than make up for it, though," Elita said, clearly trying to keep me from being saddened by that.

"True enough," I said, smiling.

"Speaking of things Lunarfire is too young for," Chromia said. "Have you talked to Ratchet?"

I gave her a look and she laughed.

"Everybot here knows you like the mech," Ironhide said. "And they didn't tell us, we can just tell."

"Yeah, ya not dat hard to read," Jazz said. "Everybot can tell ya like him, but him."

"Isn't it funny how it works out like that?" Elita grinned. "I remember the same thing happened with 'Hide and 'Mia."

"Or how about you and Optimus?" I asked, grinning.

"That's different," Elita said. "Optimus doesn't like me like that."

I raised my optic ridge at her. "Oh come on," I said. "I may be more oblivious when it comes to myself than most bots, but I'm not oblivious when it comes to others."

"I have a feeling he told you something that makes you think whatever's floating in your processor," Arcee said, smirking.

"I don't think," I said. I grinned. "I know."

"Wha? Dat da boss bot likes Elita?" Jazz asked, grinning as well.

"What?" Elita asked. "That's not possible…Why would he like me like that?"

I gave her a flat look. "Well, I may have just recently met you, but from what I can tell," I said. "You are beautiful, caring, smart and are a good leader. I could probably say other things if I knew you better, but then it might also seem stalkerish."

Arcee grinned. "You are right though," she said. She looked at Elita. "I see no reason why he wouldn't."

"He hasn't said anything," Elita said. "And we've known each other since before the war."

"You haven't either," I pointed out. "Optimus just needs someone to whack him and make him realize he should say something." I tilted my helm as I thought about how to pull that off.

"I still don't believe you," Elita sighed, shaking her helm.

Jazz said something to Ironhide in Cybertronian and the red and black mech laughed. I gave them a confused look as the others chuckled as well.

"What's so funny?" I asked, noting to myself that I was definitely going to go through that data packet Ratchet had given me for the Cybertronian language.

"Nothin'," Ironhide grinned.

"We were just reflectin' how ironic it is dat ya can give othas advice on somethin' your so oblivious to yourself," Jazz said, looking amused.

I sighed and rolled my optics.

"You know, you never answered the original question," Arcee said. "If you've talked to Ratchet yet."

"I talk to Ratchet all the time…" I said. "Where is he anyway?"

"He's around," Ironhide said, giving the same vague answer First Aid had given. He nudged Jazz when the silver mech opened his mouth to say something and Jazz turned to just glaring at him.

"We meant," Chromia said. "Have you talked to him about how you feel?"

My cooling fans kicked on and I felt my door wings flutter. "N-no," I said. I shifted a bit.

Chromia sighed and sat down beside me. "You know," she said. "There is no reason why he would not like you."

"Yeah!" Lunarfire piped up. "If he doesn't like you, why are you friends?"

I chuckled and pat the femmeling on the helm. "We're not talking that kind of like, 'Fire," I said in amusement.

She paused and then looked at Chromia before looking at Ironhide. She then looked at me with a completely serious look on her face. "You mean you want to get smooch goochy with Ratchet?" she asked, the serious look never leaving her face.

"Uh…" I had no idea how to respond to that.

"Does that mean we can't hang out anymore if you do?" she asked, looking sad.

"What? Why would it mean that?" I asked, confused.

"I dunno, but does it?" she asked.

"Of course not!" I said. I rubbed her helm. "You're a sweet little femme. Why would I shun you?"

"Ok!" she seemed happy with that answer and then hugged me. "You have my permission to kiss Ratchet then!"

I didn't realize I needed her permission. I didn't mention that. "Thanks," I said, chuckling a little as I hugged her back.

Ironhide and Jazz both smirked at me.

"What are you smirking about?" I asked.

"You never denied wanting to kiss Ratchet," Ironhide said.

"Or claimed to not know," Jazz added. "Don' tell meh ya finally came out of obliviousness?"

I rolled my optics, but a smile made its way onto my face as my cooling fans kicked in again. "Haha," I said. "It's hard to stay oblivious when two of the Thirteen and their son tell me flat out I love the guy and _then_ I have two femmes confirm it by telling me what my spark means."

"Two of the Thirteen have a son?" Arcee asked.

I nodded. "Solus and Megatronus are sparkmates and they have a son," I said. "Though it's kind of a complicated story."

Chromia chuckled. "I imagine," she said. "I thought Megatronus was The Fallen."

"He was, but he's not anymore," I said. "I met him when I met the rest of the Thirteen that are still alive. He seemed nice enough." I shrugged. "He had a good sense of humor too. He was teasing their son because he has a crush on a femme in his reality." I figured it wouldn't be very wise to say just who that femme is.

The bots all chuckled.

"And then the three of them started teasing me," I said, my door wings moving a bit down in embarrassment.

Ironhide laughed and pat me on the back. "That's not surprising," he said. "It is quite humorous how oblivious you can be, femme."

"Haha," I said, grinning a little.

"We keep getting side tracked," Arcee observed.

"I'm sorry, what?" I asked innocently.

"You know what," Chromia said as she playfully shoved my shoulder. "Why haven't you talked to Ratchet?"

"Oh that," I said. My door wings drooped a little. "I…" I looked down at my servos as I fidgeted. "I'm…kinda scared to."

"That he doesn't love you back?" Chromia asked, placing a hand on my back.

"Femme," Ironhide said when I nodded. He placed a hand on my shoulder. "You don't need to worry about that."

I gave him a questioning look. "Eh?" I asked.

He grinned. "You'll find out whenever you come across Ratchet," he said cryptically.

"Find out what?" I asked, feeling like I was missing some important piece of the puzzle.

"You'll see," Ironhide said.

I stared at him for a klik before shaking my helm at him. "Geez," I said. "You're so cryptic today."

Ironhide chuckled.

We talked more for quite some time. We shared stories, well, mostly they shared stories.

"When I was being stubborn about Chromia," Ironhide said. "Bulkhead and Springer got a few of the guys and made me sit through them telling me how they would tell her about my feelings if they were me."

I had to laugh at that. "Wow," I said. "I'd love to hear those. I bet it's hilarious now."

Chromia chuckled. "It is," she said.

"I ended up telling them that they all had no idea what Chromia would like and declared I would tell her my way," Ironhide said. "And I'm glad I did."

I grinned. "I can tell," I said as he walked over and kissed Chromia on the top of her helm.

We talked some more and I discovered that Elita had been harboring feelings for Optimus since shortly before the war started. I also learned that before the war, Jazz was apparently a cultural investigator. It had been his job to analyze the culture around Cybertron, which had been what led to him and Optimus becoming friends. Jazz had gone into the Hall of Records enough times that they had talked often enough. Jazz also revealed to me that Optimus would often seek his advice on dealing with Megatron just before the war started and he would encourage him to think for himself.

Chromia and Elita told us some stories from their travels through the stars. Lunarfire added her own thoughts into those stories as well. They also had me retell the tale about what had happened with Unicron and the following events. There was a mix of sympathetic pats and angry looks when I retold what had happened aboard the Nemesis, but I assured them that it was in the past and we shouldn't worry about it now. It may not have been that long ago, but we all had better things to worry about.

"Can we play some games?" Lunarfire asked.

"Sure," I said. "Forgive me if I don't get into it though, I'm still healing."

"I understand," Lunarfire said. "We'll play games that you can sit and play like we did last time you were in med bay."

I chuckled. "Ok," I said and rubbed her helm lightly.

"Hey! Stop that," she said, laughing as she pushed my servo away.

I grinned and rested my arms on my knees. "So what do you want to play?" I asked.

"Um," Lunarfire said.

"Why don' we play Go Fish?" Jazz suggested, pulling a pack of cards out of his subspace.

"What's that?" Lunarfire asked.

"It's a human game," Jazz said, taking the cards out of the box. "Da goal is ta match da numbers on da cards an' get da most pairs."

"Sounds fun," I said.

As Jazz started shuffling the cards, which were tiny compared to us, but he seemed unfazed, the doors opened and the twins walked in.

"We heard it's someone's creation day!" Sideswipe said and walked over. He slung an arm over my shoulders and got uncomfortably close to my face. "So, how about I give you a birthday kiss?"

"Not on your life," I said and shoved him off.

"Hey!" Sideswipe protested as he fell to the ground in a heap. His brother smirked, obviously finding his brother's failure amusing. "Aw."

"Watch it, Sides," I said. "You might end up waking up as a walking tomato."

The horror on his face was priceless and Sunstreaker started actually laughing.

"Ah wouldn' laugh if Ah were you, Sunny," Jazz said, causing the yellow mech to scowl at the nickname. "She said she was tempted to turn you into a sunflower."

This time Sunstreaker glowered darkly while Sideswipe laughed his own helm off at his brother.

"I gotta hand it to you," Sideswipe said. "I never thought it would be Ratchet's femme who could come up with a prank like that."

My cooling fans kicked on a bit. "I'm not Ratchet's femme," I said.

"Yet," Jazz said, grinning. He then gave the twins, Sideswipe especially, a dark look. "And you two better not get any ideas."

"What? Us?" Sideswipe asked. He shook his head. "I ain't about to get on the Hatchet's bad side over his femme. There's…OW!" He held his helm as a wrench fell to the ground.

I huffed, lowering my hand from where I had thrown the wrench.

"What was that for?" Sideswipe asked.

"For calling Ratchet 'Hatchet'," I said simply. "Now either stop being mean and play some cards with us or go do something else."

Sunstreaker, snickering some at his brother's expense, decided to join us playing cards and Sideswipe did as well.

"How do you play?" Sunstreaker asked.

Jazz explained the rules again as he dealt out the cards.

"I want to be on Shade's team!" Lunarfire said and crawled into my lap.

"It's not a team game!" Sideswipe said, earning another whack to the helm.

"It can be, suck it up whiney aft," I said, subspacing the second wrench. I had started carrying a couple in my subspace for the purpose of whacking Sideswipe as he tended to get on my nerves.

Ironhide and Jazz laughed at Sideswipe's misfortune as we all paired off. Elita joined me and Lunarfire, Chromia and Ironhide teamed up, Arcee teamed up with Jazz and the twins were their own team. Half an hour into the games, I had already smacked the twins both a couple times to get them to stop arguing. We had also played a couple of practice rounds.

"Jazz, you guys got any threes?" Ironhide asked.

"Go fish," Jazz said, grinning.

Chromia grabbed a card from the deck and then they laid down a pair of aces. I almost bit my lip at that, because my team had an ace, though no one knew we had it yet.

"Elita, you guys have any fives?" Arcee asked.

"Yes," Elita said and took the five out of our hand and handed it over.

"Dat's pair seven," Jazz grinned when they placed the two fives down.

"Our turn," Lunarfire said happily. We were simply taking turns rather than having multiple if we succeed in getting a card. She looked at me. "Who should I ask?"

"Ask Sides for an ace," I whispered to her, remembering that the twins had been trying to get an ace the whole game.

Lunarfire giggled and looked at the red twin. "You guys have an ace, Sides?" she asked.

"Aw man!" Sideswipe grumbled as he handed over their ace.

I grinned and accepted the card. Lunarfire placed the pair of aces down happily. There were only a few pairs missing from the floor now. We had moved to the floor, because it was easier than trying to fit the game on the berth. At this point Jazz and Arcee had seven pairs, my team had five, Chromia and Ironhide had six and the twins were losing with three. That was a total of twenty-one pairs out of the possible twenty-six pairs possible with a fifty-two card deck. The cards remaining totaled ten and were all in somebot's hand. There was no more deck to draw from, so when we ran out, we ran out.

"Chromia, do you guys have a four?" Sunstreaker asked.

"Yup," Chromia said and Ironhide grudgingly handed the card over.

"That makes four," Sideswipe grinned.

"You're still losing," Arcee and I both said.

"I know…" Sideswipe said, slouching.

"Our turn," Chromia said before making their move. "Shade, you have a seven?"

"Yup," I said and tossed our last card to them.

"Looks like we're out," Elita said.

"Aw," Lunarfire said.

"That's ok, we still beat the twins," I said, grinning.

"The fat lady ain't sang yet," Sideswipe said, pointing dramatically to the ceiling.

We all ignored them.

"Sunstreaker, you got any twos?" Arcee asked.

"Here," Sunstreaker said moodily and handed over their own last card.

"That only leaves two pairs left," Ironhide noted. "You got a six over there, Jazz?"

"Yup," Jazz said. "You have a king?"

"Yup," Chromia replied and they basically just traded their cards. "How many does everyone have?"

"We got five," I said.

"We got nine," Jazz said, grinning widely.

"We have eight," Ironhide said gruffly.

"We have four….billion," Sideswipe said.

"Very funny Sides," I said flatly. "Just accept that you lost every game so far."

"This game is stupid anyway," Sunstreaker said, getting to his pedes. "I'm out." And then he left the med bay.

"Hey wait!" Sideswipe called and ran after his twin.

"I think I'm going to go see if Optimus needs my help," Elita said, standing herself.

"I'll come with you," Arcee said.

"Me too!" Lunarfire said happily and skipped happily after the older femmes.

The femmes left, leaving just Ironhide, Chromia, Jazz and myself. We just shrugged and Jazz started shuffling the deck of cards again. Just before Jazz started dealing the cards, we were joined by Bumblebee and Bluestreak, who both wished me a happy creation day and joined in on the game. Since Lunarfire left, we played solo, with no teams. Seeing as how there were so many of us and we wanted a deck, Jazz only gave us five cards each. That left thirty cards in play and twenty-two in the deck, which wasn't too bad. I had a pair of twos right off the bat and Jazz had a pair of kings.

"Alright, so who's starting?" Chromia asked.

"We'll let Bluestreak start," I said.

"Oh!" Bluestreak said, clearly surprised at the offer. He looked around at us before deciding who to ask. "Ironhide, do you have any threes?"

"Nope, go fish," Ironhide said.

"Aw," Bluestreak said. He reached into the deck and pulled out a card before putting it in his hand. By the way his door wings drooped, he didn't get a useful card.

"Your turn, Shade'," Jazz said.

"Ok," I said. I looked at my cards. I had a three and I knew where one three was, but I figured I would be nice to Bluestreak since he had a bad start. So instead I decided to try for my five. "Jazz, you have a five?"

"Go fish," Jazz said.

I reached into the deck and drew a card. Luckily, it was a seven, which I could pair with the seven I already had, so I put it down.

"Alright, my turn," Chromia said. "Blue, do you have a three?"

"Aw," Bluestreak said, his door wings drooping as he handed over his three.

"Sorry, Blue," Jazz said sympathetically. "Maybe ya shoulda asked Chromia first?"

"Yeah," Bluestreak sighed and I pat him on the back.

"It's ok, better luck next round," I said.

"You got any fives, Bee?" Ironhide asked.

Bumblebee shook his head and Ironhide drew a card from the deck. Ironhide then put down a pair of threes and Jazz was about to go, but I interrupted.

"Wait," I said. "Something's fishy."

"What do ya mean?" Jazz asked.

"There shouldn't be two three of hearts," I said.

"But there isn't," Chromia said.

"Yes there is," I said and placed my three on the ground for them to see.

"All the cards were fine last game," Ironhide said.

"Which can only mean one thing," Chromia said.

"Somehow the twins switched a card for a three to screw with our game," I concluded.

Jazz grumbled. "Dey messed with meh cards!" he said, offended.

"How did they manage that one?" Ironhide wondered out loud.

We were all silent as we didn't have an answer for that.

"We can't play a proper game withou' all da cards," Jazz said. "I'm going to go hunt them down."

"Count me in," Ironhide said.

The two mechs left, leaving the rest of us behind.

"I'm going to the washracks," Chromia decided.

"Alright, talk to you later," I said, giving a wave.

"See ya Chromia," Bluestreak said.

"See you guys later," Chromia said. "Have a happy rest of your creation day, Shade'."

"Thanks," I said.

Chromia left, leaving the remaining three of us with a bunch of cards. We looked at the cards before looking at each other and shrugging. We then searched through the cards to figure out what card the twins had switched out. After searching through the cards, we found that the missing card was the eight of spades, so we fixed our problem by crossing out the three on one of the three of hearts and wrote an eight on it along with a spade.

Just as we were getting the cards ready for another game, the med bay doors opened again and Bulkhead, Mirage and Moonracer came in. They wished me happy creation day and then joined us for the game, Bluestreak explaining it to them and about the card. We dealt the cards so that we each had five again and put the remaining in a deck.

"Maybe this time we'll get through the game," I said.

"Who's first this time?" Bluestreak asked.

It was silent in our little circle. As we waited for someone to suggest a starting point, First Aid walked over.

"Shadebreaker," he addressed me and I looked up at him. "How's your side feeling?"

I paused a moment to contemplate that. It didn't hurt at the moment at least. "It's fine," I said, watching as Bluestreak put down a pair of twos from the corner of my optic.

"Alright," he said. "I'll check again in a little bit and run some scans before you will be released."

"Sounds good to me," I said, though my door wings twitched a little.

First Aid nodded and then went back to doing whatever it was he was doing.

"I guess I'll go first," Moonracer said as I turned back to our game. "You got any fours, 'Rage?"

"I believe the term is 'go fish'," Mirage said.

Moonracer rolled her optics and drew a card from the pile. She grinned and put down a pair of fours.

"Alright, Bulk, your turn," I said, establishing the direction we were going.

"Ok, ah, you got any eights?" Bulkhead asked, looking at me.

"Go fish," I said.

Bulkhead sighed and drew a card. He didn't get anything useful, thus didn't put anything down. So the game moved on and it was my turn.

"Bee, you got an ace?" I asked.

Bumblebee beeped and shook his helm in the negative. I sighed and drew a card, but grinned when I saw that it was a two to match my other two. I placed the pair on the floor before the game moved on to Bluestreak.

"You got an ace, Shade'?" Bluestreak asked.

"Ah, taking a page out of Chromia's book, huh?" I said as I grinned and handed the young mech my ace.

"It works," Bluestreak said, placing the cards on the ground.

Bumblebee was next, followed by Mirage. The game continued in that order and by the end of the game, Bluestreak had the most pairs, eight pairs. I came in second with five pairs while Moonracer and Bumblebee tied for third with four. Mirage had three pairs and Bulkhead had two. We played a couple more games before Mirage left only to be replaced by Springer. Springer didn't appreciate losing though, so eventually he and Bulkhead went to the Safe to train.

The rest of us continued playing for a while until they were called to go on a mission. Ironically, just after they left, First Aid looked me over once more and released me from the med bay. I had the stipulation to remain on base and take it easy, but other than that, I was free to do what I pleased.

"Take it easy," First Aid said. "Ratchet would have my helm if I let you go and you strain yourself."

I chuckled. "Don't worry 'Aid," I said. "I know better."

He nodded and then I left the med bay after cleaning up the cards. I subspaced them to return them to Jazz whenever saw him next. I then headed for the wash racks, deciding to clean up before heading to my quarters to read some more in those data pads. It has been a while since I had gotten a chance to relax with one of those. Along the way, I came across Jazz and Prowl.

"Hey guys," I greeted.

"Shade'! Yer outta med bay!" Jazz said, grinning.

"Yup," I said. "Oh, here's your cards back. We played some more with them, using the extra three as the eight that was missing."

"Dat's da card dat was missing?" Jazz asked. He continued when I nodded. "Those rotten twins gave meh a queen."

I shrugged. "They probably have their own deck," I said. "You know they like messing with bots." I turned to Prowl. "Hey Prowl, how are you?"

"I am fine, thank you," Prowl said. "I hear it is your creation day. I hope it is a good one."

"So far," I smiled. "Thanks. Now, I'm going to hit the wash racks. I'll talk to you guys later."

I waved 'bye' to the two mechs, I walked on to the elevator that would take me below ground. When I reached it, I met Flare-Up just outside.

"Hey Flare," I greeted the young femme.

"Oh hey Shade'," Flare-Up said. "Happy Creation Day."

"Thanks," I said as we both entered the elevator. "So are you headed to the Safe or wash racks?"

"Wash racks," Flare-Up said. "I went off-roading with Bulkhead earlier and need to get the sand out of my gears."

I chuckled. "Sounds fun," I said. "I just want to get clean. I haven't had a trip to the wash racks yet. I've spent most my time since they got put in in the med bay."

"Ah, that sucks," Flare-Up said. "Don't worry though, I'll teach you how to use them. I can help you with the hard to reach places too if you like."

"Sure," I said. "I will help you with yours as well."

"Thanks," Flare-Up said.

We continued in silence to our destination. Once we were there, Flare-Up showed me how to work the racks and then assisted me in removing my armor, directing me in putting it in a tub full of soap made special for our armor. She then showed me what soap to use on my protoform and we began the process of cleaning the dirt and grime off of ourselves.

"So, how are things between you and Bee?" I asked Flare-Up casually.

"U-um, we're still just friends," Flare-Up said. "I'm too scared to talk to him. I'm afraid I'll just screw it up."

"Just follow your spark, kid," I said as I worked at some grime in my shoulder joint. The more I worked at the stubborn grime, the more my side started hurting again. "You shouldn't let your fears get the best of you."

"Look who's talking," Flare-Up said.

I paused. "What do you mean?" I asked.

"Oh come on!" Flare-Up said. "I've seen the way you look at Ratchet. You care for him so much, but you haven't told him. Why not?"

"B-because," I stuttered. "I'm….afraid he doesn't like me back….oh you!" I huffed.

"You should take your own advice," Flare-Up said as she helped me with my back. "Talk to Ratchet. Give it a chance. As you told me, you can never know unless you try."

"Ok, ok," I said. "I'll talk to him when I see him. But you have to promise to talk to Bumblebee. He's a nice guy. Even if he doesn't like you back, he'll still be your friend. And maybe someday it will become more than that."

"Deal," Flare-Up said.

We continued talking as we cleaned ourselves and then our armor. Once we were done with our cleaning session, we split ways, as she went to the ops center and I headed for my quarters. When I reached my quarters, I punched in the code and then walked into my room before blinking.

Someone had apparently been hard at work in here. Not a whole lot was different, but what was done looked like it took time. Above my desk now hung a shelf that supported my souvenirs and my single picture I had that was of myself and the bots that were around when I first became Cybertronian. My desk was clean, which was a surprise in and of itself. Against the wall adjacent to the one my desk was situated at was a large bookcase in which sat all the data pads that had found their way into my quarters over the months I had been here. The wall opposite the bookshelf wall and to my right was where my berth sat up against it and the Autobot insignia was now painted on it, covering nearly the entire wall. When I walked in, I turned and noticed a board on the wall next to the door with many pieces of paper pinned to it. I recognized them easily as notes I kept and a few random quotes I had come across in my studies, or even in day to day life.

I was so caught up in taking in my quarters that I nearly jumped right back out of my armor when I heard a knocking. I turned in surprise to see Ratchet in the doorway, looking a little unsure.

"Ratchet?" I asked.

"Do you like it?" he asked.

"You did this?" I asked, perplexed.

He nodded.

"But…" I said, completely blown away. "But why?" I finally got out.

"I…" he started, but then sighed before moving into my quarters and allowing the door to shut. "Well, I knew you were saying you wanted a shelf for your souvenirs. And I thought you'd also like some organization, so once I got started…" he trailed off and waved a hand to encompass the differences in my quarters.

"You…you didn't have to," I said, my cooling fans kicking on quietly. Thankfully they weren't loud enough to be heard.

"I wanted to," he said, looking like he was trying to stand tall under fire.

"Why?" I asked. "Why do such a nice thing?"

He sighed and then hesitantly took a step toward me "Shadebreaker, I…" he started, but paused. He closed his optics briefly and when he opened them, he took my hand in his. "I need to tell you something. I should've told you a long time ago…"

I blinked at him in confusion even as my spark pulsed a little brighter than usual at the gentle hold he had my hand in. I made no move to remove my hand though. The circles he was absently-I don't think he quite realized he was doing it-rubbing into the back it felt nice.

"What?" I finally asked when he didn't speak for a klik.

"Shadebreaker," he said. "I think…no," he shook his helm. "I know I love you. You are the most important bot in my life."

My optics widened in surprise and I completely froze. "What?" I asked stupidly. _Idiot! He just told you he loved you, say something smarter! _I screamed at myself in my mind. _Shut up!_ I yelled back at myself. "Are you…neh? What?"

Ratchet sighed and dropped my hand. "Forgive me," he said, moving away suddenly. "Perhaps I shouldn't have said anything at all…" He started moving toward the door.

"W-wait!" I called and before I knew what I was doing, I dashed over to him and crashed right into him as he turned back to me. I wrapped my arms around his middle and held tightly to him. "Don't go," I whispered. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry? Sorry for what?" Ratchet asked, even as he wrapped his own arms around me.

"For having a crappy response," I said, chuckling some. "It's just…you took me by surprise. I didn't think….never thought…you could possibly love me."

"But I do, Shade'," Ratchet said, using my nickname for the first time since we learned of my true origins. "I do love you. There's nothing about you that I don't love. I thought you didn't love me."

I laughed a little. "Silly Ratchet," I said. I backed up some and looked up at him. "What would ever give you that idea?"

"You are a Prime now," Ratchet said. "I thought you would want better."

"Ratchet," I said and leaned up, standing on my tip toes to bring our faces closer so he would hear me for sure. "There is no mech I think to be better than you. You've said it, now let me say it. I. Love. You." I punctuated each word just to be sure he got each one. "I have for some time now. I just didn't realize it myself. I'm like the queen of obliviousness or some-" I was cut off by Ratchet suddenly planting his lips on mine. "thing?" I finished in a daze when he pulled back away.

"You were starting to ramble," Ratchet chuckled as his hands came to rest on my hips.

I wrapped my arms around his neck. "So what now?" I asked.

"Hmm, we start courting," he said. "See where it takes us."

"One step at a time?" I asked as we put our foreheads together.

"Indeed," he said before kissing me again.

As I returned the kiss, I felt happiness flood my spark and the rest of me. I didn't know what lay in the future for any of us, but at that moment, it didn't matter how foggy the future was. The moment was ruined though when pained flared in my side and I backed away from the kiss with a hiss of pain. Ratchet looked at me in concern and worry.

"Are you ok?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said, bringing a hand down to rub my side. "My side just started hurting again. What a way to ruin a perfectly good moment."

"Indeed," Ratchet agreed. "I'll give you an anesthetic and let you rest."

He walked me over to my berth and then administered the pain killer. He stroked my cheek and gave me a light kiss before he started moving away. I caught his hand though.

"W-wait," I said, for some reason getting flashbacks to the nightmare I had had.

"Yes?" Ratchet asked.

"C-can you s-stay?" I asked. I dropped his hand and started fidgeting as he raised an optic ridge at me. "I-I mean, I j-just…I had a nightmare last night…and I'm kinda scared."

Ratchet sighed and moved to sit and my berth beside me. He pulled me into his arms and I snuggled into his hold. "I will stay with you until you fall into recharge," he promised.

"T-thanks," I said in a still slightly wavering voice. I curled up against Ratchet and snuggled into his hold. In his arms, I was already starting to relax and the ghosts of images from my nightmare were fading.

**~Normal PoV~**

Ratchet sighed contentedly as he held Shadebreaker in his arms. He had been surprised by her sudden fear, but he understood as he was no stranger to bad dreams. He was shocked at how much she was shaking though and it only made him hold her tighter. She was his femme and he would protect her. Whatever had spooked her so much in her dreams would not be allowed to do so again.

When the small femme finally relaxed and fell into recharge, Ratchet repositioned her to where she was lying down on her berth. He stroked her helm with a hand before leaning over and kissing the top of her helm.

"Recharge well, my sweet femme," he said softly before standing up again.

Sighing, Ratchet left Shadebreaker's quarters and went over to his own. As much as he would've loved to watch over his femme as she recharged, he had paper work to complete and was need of recharge himself.


	31. Time for a Visit

**A/N: **Sorry it took so long to get this chapter done. As you recall I was on vacation and then I also had a couple other stories that came first in the line-up. I actually worked on Across the Galaxy and this one at the same time pretty much. It took me until half way through the Across the Galaxy chapter to get back into the writing swing. That's right, I wrote the entire A World Apart chapter in writer's block. :| Writer's block has been a struggle for both Sci and I during this chapter and lately in general. *grabs her new hammer* But we'll smash that writer's block eventually! :D And my job hunt will eventually be done.

Oh yeah! I don't think I actually mentioned it last chapter. I know I did in the author's notes of my latest updates for AWA and ATG, but it hadn't been decided yet when I last updated this story so I haven't said it here. This chapter is a co-op with Sci-Fifan95 again. As such, we are updating our stories at the same time, so go check out his when you're done here as it is a really good story. We have been working on cleaning up his earlier chapters as far as grammar goes and his writing has improved a lot since he started it, but it's all good and will only get better. :) As his beta, I am very much proud of him. :D

Oh! And for those of you who read Across the Galaxy, don't forget to vote in the poll I have up on my profile!

Oh yeah, and guess what? I have finally drawn a complete picture of Ratchet that I'm satisfied with. I have a non-colored version and a colored pencil version of it on my deviantart, which you can find the link to somewhere on my profile. I also plan to color it on the computer someday, though it is hard to tell when I will get around to it. It's Prime-verse. :) More drawings are to come. :D

**Scripture of the Update:**

"_These are things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him: a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren." ~Proverbs 6:16-19 New King James Version_

**Author's Replies:**

**Jayna Prime: **Lol. You used the wrong there, as it should be "they're". :P I am glad you love it so much.

**pokemonjkl: **Lol. I'm glad you liked it. :)

**ilikeanimeandmanga: **I'm glad you liked it. And yes, yes it is.

**Sci-Fifan95: **Lol, bro. Glad you liked it. :)

**ToaKage: **Glad you liked it so much. :D

**Mercedes Wolfcry: **Thanks. :)

**Vivian Hale: **Lol. She was just taken off guard. :P But I would react just like that as well. :3 Thanks Jazz, but his name is Ratchet, not Hatchet. :| Hatchet is a vicious and brutal Decepticon Dread…*is serious, look it up on the wiki* You can probably see why I'm not fond of that nickname for Ratch' as he is not vicious or brutal or evil. But anyway…Indeed Viv, indeed. Lol. Glad you both liked it.

**Sailor Shinzo: **Indeed.

**FoxyAlterEgos: **Yup, they did. :) Dreams sometimes are merely manifestations of fears. I am glad you liked the chapter.

**Knockout'sFanGirll221:** You changed your username since I wrote down the responses…Good thing I went to check cause I couldn't read the writing on that or I'd be calling you something different. Chpt 30-That sounds like something the twins would do alright. *rolls eyes and sighs at the twins* I can see what I can do with that. Glad you liked the chapter. :) chpt 7-It is a really good song.

**Luna Prime- Awesomeness: **Hehe. Lol. You're welcome. I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)

**CatGirlFireflare: **Lol. I'm glad you enjoyed the fluff.

**Akira Alvina: ***shock* It's one of the Lolcat memes. That sounds like a good motto. Lol. I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter, though you don't have to worry about the dream, I am not planning on everyone dying. It is just a fear of Shade's. Thanks for the prayers. Glad you liked the chapter.

**Mikaela the Cat: **Hehe. *hugs back* :) Glad you're happy.

**Kuro Rotasu: **Thanks. Glad you liked it. :)

**MusicalPrime: **Lol. Finally indeed. :) Thanks! I am glad you liked it.

**Lunarshadowangel: **Glad you liked it. :) Go Fish is fun, who wouldn't like it? Thanks! Sorry I took so long to update. :(

**Princess Thil Galel: **Thanks. Though don't kiss me, that'd be kinda odd…Glad you liked it so much though! :D

**MidnightChiller13: **Lol. Glad you liked it.

**Awwwwwwwwwwwwww: **Lol! Indeed…

**Jaacs McHenry: **30 chapters actually. Lol. If you recall one is just an author's note from back when I had my accident. ^.^'' *can hardly believe it's almost been a year* I am glad you liked it.

**Transformers girl 1234: **Thanks! I am glad you liked it!

**Fangirl: **Lol. You'll have to read to find out. The twins will likely be annoying, and so will Miko. Lol. We'll see. Glad you liked it.

**KayleeChiara: **Don't worry, it's just a manifestation of her fears. :) Glad you liked it.

**Lady of Myth and Legends: **I am so happy you think so. I really try to write good stories. Sometime I do fail, but that's another story. Lol. Of course I will continue! I just had a speed bump along the way.

**Solar-Flare Prime: **Thanks. :D Glad you liked it.

**mchap1154: **No, it's not the end, don't worry. Glad you liked it. :)

**prowlfan101: **chpt 29-Actually, its shattered pieces were entrusted to Nexus Prime by Prima when Prima went…wherever he went-hence why Nexus…did he wield it or was it the one he let Optimus use in that battle, whichever it was he could do so because he was entrusted with guarding it. The sword itself was originally Prima's. Plus, as this is fanfiction, I can change things even if I don't usually. Personalities need to remain the same though. And Avengers is awesome! Chpt 31- Wheeljack is classified! XD Wing Saber? *has no idea who that is* I have plans for MECH…and they aren't pretty for them. -_-' chpt 31(huh?)-I don't know the first thing about Megaman. You're welcome to write and Transformers/Megaman story yourself though. You seem creative enough to write your own stories. Chpt 31(again again?)-Good luck with your idea!

**Autobot StarRacer: **Glad you like it! :)

**TransFanFreak101: **Yeah, finally. Lol. We'll see. Glad you liked it! :D

And now! On with the long awaited next chapter!

**Chapter 31: Time For A Visit**

**~The Pocket Universe, Shadebreaker's PoV~**

I blinked around the desert in slight confusion for a moment before I felt my sire through our bond. Vector must've brought me to the Pocket Universe again. The thought had me smiling a bit. I had been planning to make a visit in the morning, but I guessed that this worked too. I couldn't find it in me to be irritated that he had interrupted my recharge, I had too much stuff to be happy about. The 'Bots were safe at the time being, Ratchet and I were starting a relationship, and I was getting to see my sire and his brothers again.

_I wonder if Shadow' will be here this time,_ I thought as I followed the bond to find where Vector was. It was partially curiosity, but I also thought it would be nice to see my cousin again. I wondered if there was a special name for that in Cybertronian. Probably, but since I didn't know it, he was my cousin.

"Poke," I said as I poked Vector when I found him.

He grinned down at me before wrapping me in his arms in a huge hug. "There you are my sweet little femmeling," he said.

"Love you," I said, smiling.

"Love you too, my Little One," Vector said. He stopped hugging me, but kept an arm around my shoulders as we started walking. "Come on, the others are waiting for us. We have some things to talk about."

"Is something wrong?" I asked, growing concerned.

Vector chuckled and squeezed my shoulder comfortingly. "No, nothing's wrong," he said. "We just thought we'd get together and hang out. You know family time."

"Sounds cool to me," I said, happy that nothing was going wrong. "We all hanging out?"

"Well, actually, it's just gonna be me, you, Solus, Megatronus and Shadowstreaker," Vector said.

"Really? Where's everybot else?" I asked. That made me concerned again.

Vector chuckled. "Don't worry, you'll see them next time," he said. "We just thought it'd be nice to spend time with you two without them for once."

"Ah," I said my worry once again dissipating. "I see."

It was about then that we came to a spot surrounded by cliffs with random large rocks scattered about. There seemed to be a lot of areas like this, or perhaps it's the same one we had been in when Vector had revealed to me that I was his daughter. Part of me still didn't quite believe it and thought there was some sort of mix-up. But it was only a small part and it was easily overruled by the fact that we shared the parent-child bond thing. I don't think anything could fake that.

"Welcome back, Little One," Megatronus greeted me as he and Solus were already here.

"It's good to see you again," Solus said.

"It's good to see you two as well," I said, smiling. I looked around. "Is Shadow' not here yet?"

"Not yet," Vector said. "We thought we'd share some things with you first."

I looked up at my sire in question, but Solus answered instead.

"We showed Shadowstreaker some scenes from your life just before you met," she said. "We thought we'd make it even and show you scenes from his."

"I think you'll at least get a laugh out of it," Megatronus grinned.

I resisted the urge to roll my optics at him. One just simply did not roll one's optics at one of the Thirteen. Though I might get away with it with these three, I didn't want to risk being rude or breaking some unspoken rule. Though I didn't quite get how it was possible for them to show me part of Shadowstreaker's life. So I asked.

"How is that possible?" I asked.

Vector chuckled a bit. "I have the ability to open portals through time and space, Little One," he said. "I can see all of time from any dimension from this Pocket Universe."

"All of time? Even all of the future? Of any reality?" I asked.

"Well, no, that's not really possible," Vector said. "You see each reality's time is infinite and there are so many possibilities. Things can change in the blink of an optic. The future is always changing, therefore I cannot be certain that what I can see through the portal will remain the same when the time actually comes around. You have changed some things in your own reality."

"The one I came from? Or the one I'm in now?" I asked.

Vector smiled a bit sadly.

"Shade' the one you are in now is truly your reality," Solus told me. "The other one was just one you were visiting."

"Oh, well that makes sense I guess," I said, my door wings twitching a little as I thought about it. "I am still getting used to that." I rubbed my helm sheepishly. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Vector said, placing a servo on my shoulder. "I apologize that you couldn't grow up in your true home. You would've loved it on Cybertron."

"It's fine, I understand," I said, sending reassurance through our bond that I was not angry at him about it. "Some things can't be helped."

Vector smiled and I felt his relief that I still wasn't angry.

"Are we gonna get on with it?" Megatronus asked. "The sooner we show her random stuff, the sooner I can see my son again."

I grinned. "A bit impatient, aren't we?" I asked. Of course, I understood where he was coming from.

Megatronus gave me a stern look though its effect was lost with the amusement in his optics, knowing I was only teasing. "Your daughter is mean, Vector," he said, his voice filled with humor.

Vector chuckled as I pouted playfully at the larger mech, causing him to chuckle as well. He patted my helm to let me know there were no hard feelings before Vector spoke up again.

"Ok, we'll get started," he said. He motioned for me to stand next to him and I did so, while the others stood on the other side of me.

He opened a portal and through it I could see a human boy, who I assumed was probably Shadowstreaker when he was a human. He had brown hair in a military cut style and the same eye color as he has now, cobalt blue. He was wearing jeans and a hoodie, which told me he was probably in a colder climate. He appeared to be in a clearing of some kind of forest.

"This is Shadowstreaker when he was still human," Vector told me. "While he was still in the reality where we're fictional beings."

_So we basically came from the same reality then,_ I thought as I watched the scene as it grew stormy. As I watched, a pair of blue optics peered out at Shadowstreaker and he noticed them. Maybe it was just because I had seen his Cybertronian form, but I was surprised to see him run the other way and climb into an ATV and start driving away at full speed. If I had expected anything, it certainly wasn't to see him run the other way.

"I could never see the Shadowstreaker of now running away from something," I said, looking up at my sire and pointing toward the portal.

Vector chuckled. "Remember, he wasn't the large and armed mech you met last time you were here back then," he said. "And he had never seen a Cybertronian outside of the TV show."

"You probably would've ran too," Megatronus said, optics sparkling in amusement.

I shrugged. "Probably," I said.

I turned back to the scene to see that the ATV had crashed and Shadowstreaker had been flung out of it. I cringed at the injuries that I could see simply from looking at him. I watched and listened to the conversation as some of the Primes showed up and Prima lifted Shadowstreaker's human body.

"It was my fault," Zeta said. "If the boy hadn't of seen me, we could've approached without causing him fear."

"We did not know how he would react to us. It is not your fault," Prima told Zeta. He then contacted Vector. "Vector, bring us back." There was a pause. "Yes, we have him. And he's seriously injured."

I blinked at the scene as they began taking Shadowstreaker through a portal. "Wait," I said, confusion in my voice. "I have a question." I even raised my hand, a habit of mine when I was completely confused by something.

"What do you wish to ask?" Solus asked.

"Well, if you guys were there to get him," I said. "Why did you need to? Isn't there always a reason?"

"To protect him," Megatronus said. "That storm that formed would've killed him."

I nodded. "But I'm still a bit confused," I said. "Do you save anyone who's about to die from a storm?"

"No," Vector said. "Only the ones Primus tells us to. It simply wasn't Shadowstreaker's time to die."

I nodded in understanding before turning back to the scenes. It apparently had skipped some time as now when I looked at it, he was with the Autobots. Well, actually he was with Jack, Raf and Miko on what appeared to be the Nemesis. I was fairly certain it was the Nemesis because everything was larger than them and the computers reminded me of the ones in the room where Megatron had had Orion Pax working. Oh, and not to mention the Decepticon shooting at Raf as Jack pulled him out of the way. The scene zeroed in on the Decepticon's pede and I saw Shadowstreaker pull a cable out of it, getting covered in Energon in the process. He pulled a few more cables and wires out, causing much pain to the unfortunate Decepticon.

"And that is more what I expected to see," I said in amusement. It made sense in my processor for the warrior mech I had met to have been brave as a human as well.

Megatronus chuckled at my seemingly random statement.

The scene changed to where they were back at the Autobot base. Ratchet had what looked like a metal brace on his arm, which made me frown in worry. Apparently he and Optimus had faced down a horde of Cyber-zombies. Maybe Miko wasn't entirely crazy when she mentioned a zombie apocalypse. They spoke some and Jack almost left, but Shadowstreaker convinced him to stay before the three children left. It was then that Optimus, Ratchet and Shadowstreaker spoke a bit before Shadowstreaker suddenly got an expression of intense pain and then collapsed. I cringed in sympathy and Vector sent feelings of comfort my way, for which I was grateful.

"This is when he went through his transformation," Solus said. "I regret that it was a painful experience."

"I'm sure he doesn't blame you," I said. "You can't really expect changing species to be painless."

"Still, we are sorry you two had to go through that pain," Vector said and I felt his regret over our bond.

I gave him a look as I sent reassurance over our bond again. "Don't worry about it," I said. "It's in the past. Past is, well, past."

Vector smiled as I looked back at the portal. The next scene appeared to be Shadowstreaker, Arcee and Bulkhead looking on as Ratchet worked on some projects. It appeared as though they were placing bets on at what point Ratchet would collapse from working too hard. I found it quite amusing that none of them won, because he offlined before the others returned, but finished the projects afterward. It was just amusing to say the least.

The next scene was covered in snow and it showed Shadowstreaker, Bulkhead and Bumblebee finding a large pod of some kind before changing to show Shadowstreaker, Arcee and Optimus out in the cold, covered with ice and having clearly been stuck out there for a while. Shadowstreaker and Arcee appeared to be having a conversation, though Optimus was silent for the most part. It wasn't long before a Ground Bridge opened up and Bulkhead ran through, followed by a swarm of scraplets.

_So those are scraplets,_ I thought, remembering Miko had told me about that at one point.

I also saw various other scenes and I learned that Prowl and Moonracer arrived at some point in his reality. I also noticed that the Ratchet and Moonracer of that reality seemed to have feelings for each other and I tried not to think too long on that, it might give me a complex. Also, at one point a sparkling landed nearby the base and Shadowstreaker and Arcee became its temporary caretakers. Also, around the same time Shadowstreaker accidentally walked in on Arcee taking a shower.

"That must've been awkward," I said, barely containing my laughter at the look on Shadowstreaker's face. He was horrified he had walked in on a femme. He was braver about it than I would've been though, as if I had walked in on Ratchet on accident I would've quite literally ran away-even now that we were courting. I was glad we had separate wash racks for femmes and mechs.

Megatronus chuckled. "Anybot else would've gotten slagged," he noted.

That made me actually laugh. "And here he thinks he doesn't have a chance," I said, remembering our brief conversation about his crush last time I was here.

"I'm gonna have to talk with the mech," Megatronus said, crossing his servos as his optics sparkled in amusement.

I snickered and turned back to the portal. The scene had changed to show Shadowstreaker in the Ops Center with the other Bots, Agent Fowler and a military man. I learned that the military man was Lieutenant General Lance Shepherd and he was heading a group known as the Special Tasks Force of the 141st Division-S.T.F. 141 for short. They were apparently a group of humans come together to try to help fight against the Decepticons.

"Hmm, I wonder if there's anything like that in my reality," I wondered out loud, but continued to watch the portal.

I was shown other scenes too and learned there was this huge fight during which Jetfire and Springer arrived, as well as the sparkling's creators. The sparkling and his creators left soon after, which seemed to make both Shadowstreaker and Arcee sad. Another scene was Shadowstreaker playing poker with a couple other Autobots and a few of the military officers from S.T.F. 141. Apparently, he had contracted an ancient sickness known as the Cybonic Plague, but the others were able to find the cure and heal him.

Also, apparently the Springer in his reality is really sleazy and a jerk. So much so that he ended up getting a beating from Shadowstreaker when he said something about Arcee being at fault for Tailgate and Cliffjumper dying. When Arcee came into the brig to visit Shadowstreaker afterward, I could tell that she was more than grateful and I caught a look in her optics that told me she liked him as he liked her, they were just oblivious to each other's feelings.

"Hmm, Elita's right," I said. "It does always happen like that. The universe is full of obliviousness."

Megatronus laughed. "You see it too?"

"Yup," I said, popping the 'p' at the end as the portal closed.

"And now you are all caught up," Vector said. "And Shadowstreaker should be here at any moment."

I grinned as Megatronus looked like a puppy that was just told he would get a treat and Solus rolled her optics at her mate, though a smile was plastered on her face too. I chuckled at the two before finding a rock and sitting on it to wait. The others all sat down as well.

As Vector had said, it wasn't too long before Shadowstreaker arrived. A large boom sounded and I covered my audios to shield them from the noise. I noticed the others had done so as well as I sent an annoyed look in the direction of the jet that was now returning. When he reached us, he hovered for a moment before transforming and dropping to the ground.

The black mech looked at the four of us and rubbed his helm in a sheepish manner. "Sorry about that sonic boom," he said apologetically. "I didn't pay attention to where I was flying."

Megatronus took in a breath and let it out in a loud sigh, causing us all to look at him. "Son... I are disappoint." He said in a voice filled with false sadness and disappointment.

I couldn't help but give a small laugh at how Shadowstreaker narrowed his optics at his sire. I had a pretty good idea what he was talking about.

"And why are you disappointed?" Shadowstreaker asked with caution in his tone.

Megatronus then gave him a look as dry as the desert around us. "You have made no progress with Arcee since you were last here. That is unacceptable." He said with a shake of his helm, causing Solus to roll her optics at her mate's antics and laugh.

I laughed as well as Shadowstreaker rolled his optics.

"There is no progress to be made when only one of us has a crush on the other," Shadowstreaker said stiffly as he folded his servos over his chest plates.

I scoffed a bit and rolled my optics this time. "Are you sure about that?" I asked, crossing my own servos across my chest plates. "After all, I thought that my feelings for Rach' were one-sided and I ended up being wrong, you could be wrong about how Arcee feels."

Shadowstreaker turned to stare at me blandly. I just grinned at him, knowing for a fact that he was wrong on that. If he suspected I knew something, he didn't mention it and instead made an observation.

"You and Ratchet have finally realized your feelings," he observed.

I grinned and nodded.

"See, son? If Shade' can get past obliviousness, it should be no problem for you," Megatronus said, his optics shining with mirth.

I laughed again as Shadowstreaker glared daggers at his sire. I could feel my own sire's amusement as well.

"Alright, enough of that for now," Vector said and I could detect a little bit of his amusement in his tone.

"Fine," Megatronus grumbled in what was obviously a joking manner as he wrapped a servo around Solus's shoulder-joints and then looked back at Shadowstreaker. "So what took you so long to get here, son?" He asked.

"Distance, I arrived in a forest somewhere in that direction," Shadowstreaker replied and pointed a digit somewhere behind me. "I was flying at hypersonic speeds and it still took me more than twenty klicks to get here."

"Wait, there's more than just desert here?" I asked in surprise.

He nodded. "Yeah, there's wildlife here too."

I perked up at that. "Really? What kind of wildlife?" I asked excitedly.

"Well, I saw some kind of Stegosaur for about a klick before it was eaten by what looked like a T-Rex on miracle grow." Shadowstreaker said flatly, smiling slightly as my optics widened in shock for a few moments before they optics returned to their normal size.

"Poor stegosaur," I said sadly, door wings drooping a bit. "Never stood a chance…" I bowed my helm a bit in a moment of silence for the lost creature. "Can we go see the dinos?" I asked when I was done, door wings perking back up as I looked up at my sire.

Vector chuckled at my excitement about the dinosaurs. "We were planning something else, but we can do that first. If the others don't mind that is," he said and I looked to the other two Primes in expectation.

Solus smiled. "It couldn't hurt," she said. "We do have plenty of time."

"I don't mind at all," Megatronus said.

"Yay," I said, clapping my servos and jumping up and down in excitement. When I realized what I was doing, I stopped and my cooling fans kicked on to cool my systems that were heating in embarrassment down. I rubbed the back of my helm sheepishly. "I mean…"

Megatronus and Solus both laughed as Shadowstreaker and my sire chuckled at me. I pouted at them before Vector patted me on the helm.

"It's alright, Little One," he said. "There is nothing wrong with being joyful."

"Yeah," Shadowstreaker added. "Everyone is entitled to have a youngling moment every now and then, most just prefer not to." He finished with a small shrug.

"Ok," I said quietly. And then in a more subdued manner I added, "Does that mean we can go see the dinos?"

"Yes, it does," Vector said with affection in his voice.

"I just thought of something," Shadowstreaker said. "How are all of us going to get to where the dinosaurs are? I know you three can just teleport there," he gestured to his creators and Vector, which caused me to give my sire a curious look before he smiled quietly, saying that he would explain later. "But Shadebreaker and I would have to use our vehicle modes. I wouldn't have much of a problem, you'd just have to sit and wait for twenty klicks or so for me to arrive. But it would take Shadebreaker breems to get there since she can only use a ground mode."

"Leave it to me," Vector said. "I'm not the guardian of time and space for nothing." And with that, he opened up a portal, on the other side of which I could see a lot foliage.

"That's cool," I said, looking calm on the outside though my optics shone in amazement and excitement.

We walked through the portal and came out on the other side in a thick forest. The ground was covered in grass, moss-covered rocks of various sizes and dozens of different types of ferns and bushes. Some of the vegetation had strange fruit growing on them, which I assumed was what some of the dinosaurs ate. The trees were larger than any I had seen so far on Earth, at least since coming to the reality in which I now resided. Many of them didn't have branches until the tops of them, which was a very long time as they were all at least half a kilometer tall. Some of them though had branches further down. There was only one tree shorter than that and it appeared to be so because part of it got snapped off by something. What could've possibly broken a tree that thick was probably really large, even to us Cybertronians.

I was already in awe so when I caught sight of the dinosaur nearby, I think my mouth dropped open in more awe. It was huge and was eating some leaves from the middle of one the few trees with leaves low enough for it to reach. The dinosaur was very large and had an extremely long neck, enabling it to reach the leaves at the tops of the trees. Its hind legs were longer than its front legs by just enough to make it noticeable and its tail was just a bit longer than its neck as well. It had to be at least twenty-six meters long. Its head was small in proportion to its body, but was still quite large. It was slightly bluish gray in color, though there were spots that looked more brownish.

"Wow," I said, staring up at the dinosaur. I was definitely going to look up dinosaurs at some point or another as I decided that they were awesome.

Vector chuckled at my youngling-like wonder. "It is an amazing sight, isn't it?" He asked. "I never get tired of seeing these magnificent creatures."

"Hi dinosaur!" I called to the long necked creature.

The dinosaur merely turned its head to look down at us as it continued chewing on some leaves. I stared up at it as it stared back.

"Now, what kind of dinosaur are you?" I mused to myself quietly.

"It is called an Apatosaurus," Shadowstreaker said and I looked back at him curiously. "It's one of the more famous sauropod dinosaurs."

I stared at him for a moment, but before I could respond I heard a soft roar, I didn't really think the word 'roar' actually properly described the sound. I hadn't heard it before, so I didn't really have anything to compare it to other than a roar, but I still felt it was the wrong kind of description. It was gentler than a roar, more like a sound to express curiosity. When I turned to look I found a much, much smaller version of the same dinosaur eating the tree leaves staring right at us. It looked like it was probably the larger one's kid or something.

"Aw, it's so cute," I said, being in instant awe of the baby dinosaur. It was still quite large, being about as tall as me on all fours.

My statement brought its attention to me and I crouched and held out a hand to it as it took a cautious step forward. It looked up at its larger counterpart before looking back and moving forward a bit more bravely. When it was close enough, it stuck out its neck toward me and sniffed at my hand. Slowly, I reached out my other hand and started petting its head. It seemed to like it and moved a bit closer to where its neck wasn't quite as stretched.

"It's so cute," I reiterated, obviously loving every moment of interacting with the dinosaur. I felt pride from my sire's end of the bond along with a warning to be cautious.

I nearly jumped out of my armor when suddenly there was a larger head nearly right on top of me, beside the baby dinosaur. I retracted both my hands and held them up in surrender as the larger version stared at me. The baby rubbed its head against its parent's-whether it was the mother or father was hard to tell-and the parent returned the gesture. I was taken by surprise when it then moved and nudged me with its muzzle. The force pushed me back lightly, though not enough to actually move me, which probably meant it was being gentle.

I stared at it with wide optics for a moment before looking over at the others.

"Ah... What do I do?" I asked, not afraid of the dinosaur, but just so surprised by its action that my processor was drawing a blank.

"Pet the mother like you pet the baby," Vector replied encouragingly.

Even with his encouragement, I was cautious when I reached up and slowly put my hand on the end of its muzzle after looking back at it. It seemed to sigh and sounded content as it closed its eyes for a moment before backing away. I laughed a little, seeing the baby walk over to the others to investigate them while its parent just remained where it was. In fact, I don't think it ever even moved from its original spot, just moved its head.

"This is amazing," I said quietly as I stared in awe at the dinosaur in front of me.

As the Apatosaurus began to move its head away, I looked back at the others to find the baby one sticking its head through Shadowstreaker's leg and looking confused. I laughed some.

"It appears as though it's discovered it can't touch you," I observed.

"Evidently," Shadowstreaker said, moving away a bit from the dinosaur.

It seemed the baby Apatosaurus was not deterred though, as it continued to stare at him and walk around him, as if it was trying to figure out if he was real or not. I couldn't help but chuckle at the scene. It was just too funny. I felt a nudge and turned to see the big Apatosaurus staring at me with a bunch of leaves in its mouth. Once it had my attention, it set the leaves down and motioned to it with its head at me.

Shadowstreaker laughed. "I don't think she knows Cybertronians can't eat anything organic," he said humorously.

I laughed a little bit as well. "Apparently," I said to him before turning to the dinosaur. "Well, thanks for the offer, but I can't eat vegetation."

The Apatosaurus just made a noise and continued to stare at me. At this point, the baby one finally stopped staring at Shadowstreaker and walked over and started eating the leaves. I gave both another pat before rejoining the others.

"Huh," I said after a brief moment. "I just made friends with dinosaurs..." I blinked several times before I smiled again. "Miko will never believe me."

"No, Miko will believe you, but she'll probably be mad that you didn't take pictures." Shadowstreaker joked as I rejoined them.

I chuckled. "You're right, Jack is the one that won't believe me when I say I made friends with dinosaurs."

I let out a cry of surprise as my sire suddenly pulled me into a side hug. "And I am so proud of you for doing that," he said and planted a kiss on the top of his creation's helm.

"Sire!" I protested. "Not in front of the others!" I waved one servo around as I became embarrassed by my sire's action, which made the others laugh lightly before Vector released me from his side hug with a chuckle.

"Well, I think we should move on," Solus said. "There are several of other dinosaurs to see."

"That reminds me," Shadowstreaker said, looking at his carrier as we began to walk away. "Why are dinosaurs even in the Pocket Universe?"

I looked to her as well, also curious about the answer.

"Before the dinosaurs went extinct on Earth, we brought several hundred members of each species here, just like we do with every species of animal that is on the verge of extinction." Solus said.

I tilted my helm in curiosity. "And why do you do that?" I asked.

Solus looked over at me. "Because all life is precious in its own unique way, and it is tragic whenever a species, sentient or otherwise, becomes extinct. By bringing different species of animals here, we can protect them from extinction in an environment we can control. And we also, occasionally, protect them from each other." She explained with a smile on her faceplate.

"And where was that protection when I saw that Stegosaur get swallowed like popcorn?" Shadowstreaker asked humorously, causing Solus and I to laugh at his joke while Vector and Megatronus just chuckled.

Once we sobered, Solus clarified her earlier statement. "While we protect all the creatures in the Pocket Universe, the numerous carnivores here need to eat as well. But, we make sure that the herbivorous creatures outnumber the predators by a minimum of two hundred to one at any given time."

Shadowstreaker gave his carrier a confused look. "The ratio of predators to prey on Earth is only about one carnivore to every nine herbivores, why is the ratio so different in the Pocket Universe?" he asked.

Megatronus answered his question instead. "Because, some of the predators tend to... Eat more than others." He said as he gave his son a meaningful sideways glance.

"Ah," was all he said in response.

With that settled, we walked in mostly silence. Or, if there was a conversation going, I was at least oblivious to it, as I seemed to tune everything out as I stared around at the ancient vegetation. I could feel my sire's amusement at how I found everything in this area fascinating. I hadn't seen vegetation like this in my time with the Autobots, I doubted I even had before then.

We eventually came to what appeared to be a lake, or at least a pond, with a waterfall falling from a cliff on the opposite side. Some flying insects flew by and nearly distracted me from seeing the dinosaurs gathered at the water.

On one side there was a group of dinosaurs that could apparently stand and walk either on all fours or on only two legs, as there were some doing both. There were about five adults and several of their little ones running around. These dinosaurs were much smaller than the Apatosaurus, but they were still quite large. They were about thirty-five feet long and less than a third of that tall. They each had a crest protruding from the back of their heads that was approximately two and a half feet long. The rest of its skull was about three feet long with a narrow jaw line. These dinosaurs appeared to be semi-aquatic as some of the little ones were swimming around in the water, sometimes diving underneath.

On the side opposite the swimming dinosaurs was a small group of another kind of dinosaur. These ones varied between fifty-sixty feet long, I presumed that the larger ones were fully grown while the others still had growing to do, and about half as tall as their length. Their skulls were bulky and heavily built with a solid crest on the back. They also had a total of three horns, two above their eyes and one at the end of their snout. The crests seemed to change color with the way the light hit them. Some of them were drinking the water while others were grazing on the grass.

"This is amazing," I said, looking between the two groups of dinosaurs.

What I found even more amazing was that it appeared the two groups were friends, or at least some of their children were. I watched in amazement as a young swimmer rode a young one of the three horned dinosaurs as it walked over to the swimmers, presumably to return the child to its family.

"That's interesting…" Shadowstreaker said as we both watched the pair go by.

"What species are they?" I asked Shadowstreaker.

"The ones in the water," he pointed a digit at the duck-billed dinosaurs, "are called Parasaurolophus. And the other group appears to be Triceratops, but they're about twice as large and even more heavily built than a normal Triceratops, and their crests seem to change color when the sun hits them at different angles, kinda like your door-wings."

"Ok, thanks," I said, nodding in understanding.

"Not a problem," he said.

We stayed for a little bit before moving on. As we walked more through the forest, I saw a lot of smaller dinosaurs running around. One of them was a small two legged dinosaur with some feathers on its tail and arms. It had a rounded beak-like mouth and a crest on the top of the head. It was among the smallest I had seen, being half as tall as an average adult human. It had also been carrying an egg.

"What was that?" I asked.

Before anyone could respond, an audio receptor shattering roar pieced the air from the direction the small dino had been running from. And a moment later, a large dinosaur burst through the tree-line and let out another roar that made us cover our audio receptors before it started running in the direction that the small one went with the egg. Its steps shook the ground so much as it ran that I lost my balance and fell on my servos and knee-joints. The large dinosaur soon disappeared behind the same tree as the small one.

My sire came over and offered a servo to help me up.

"Well, the first dinosaur that came out was called an Oviraptor, human paleontologists believed it would steal the eggs of other dinosaurs for its food, they apparently were correct. As for the second dinosaur... I have no idea what it's called, all I know is that it's really freaking big." Shadowstreaker said, briefly looking back to where the Oviraptor and the large dinosaur went as I faintly heard another roar.

"I noticed!" I responded as Vector pulled me up back onto my pedes, fear, excitement and amazement mixing together in my voice. "That thing was bigger than the mother Apatosaurus!"

"Indeed it was," Vector said. "We haven't properly named that species of dinosaur, but we refer to them as Behemoths because of their size and apex predator status."

Shadowstreaker nodded. "That does seem to suit them," he said as we started to walk.

We were mostly silence as walked through the forest after that, only making occasional comments about certain dinosaurs we saw on the ground or certain Pteradactyls we saw flying above us.

Eventually we came to what appeared to be a desert, with sand dunes spread throughout it. As we walked out of the forest, I was surprised at the drastic change of scenery, though the trees did still partly go out some in a less dense manner. A flying dinosaur flew overhead, gliding through the air toward a mountain peak a ways away. I stared after it for a moment before something else caught my optic. There was something jumping through the sand dunes out in the desert.

"What's that?" I asked, not recognizing it as anything.

Shadowstreaker looked at me before joining in staring out at the creature. It faintly resembled a massive armored worm. It was at least one hundred and forty feet long when it was out of the sand dunes, and it was clearly only part of the creature's length since I never saw the other end of it. The creature had two vertical slits for eyes that were facing forward like a predator's eyes should. And it had one massive mandible on either side of its huge head, clearly meant to help drag its prey into its enormous mouth.

"That... Is a Thresher Maw..." Shadowstreaker finally responded to my question after a few moments.

"Oh," I said, staring out at the creature. After a moment I added, "What's a Thresher Maw?"

"Thresher Maws are titanically large subterranean carnivores that spend their entire lives eating, or searching for something to eat. They are from a video game called Mass Effect. At least, they were in a video game when I was back in my original reality, clearly not the case now." he explained as the Thresher Maw jumped one more time before it went behind a sand dune and disappeared from sight.

"What does something that big even eat?" I asked, wondering to myself outloud.

"Anything it feels like eating," Shadowstreaker joked with a small smile, causing me, Solus and Vector to give a brief laugh before Megatronus spoke.

"Well, we should probably get back. There's something else we wanted to show you two." He said with a mischievous glint in his optics.

"And that would be?" Shadowstreaker asked his sire as he narrowed his optics in fake suspicion and distrust.

"Now that would be telling," Megatronus responded with an innocent smile plastered on his faceplate.

Shadowstreaker raised one of his optic ridges. "Thank you, Captain Obvious. We would be so lost without you," he said sarcastically.

Megatronus ignored his sarcasm and nodded his helm. "I know you would be lost, I know." He said.

I broke out into laughter at their banter as my sire opened a portal and Solus sighed and face-palmed. I couldn't help but laugh, seeing the whole thing as funny, since I knew they were just joking with each other.

"The two most important mechs in my life... Behaving like younglings," Solus said, shaking her helm in a disappointed manner as she turned to walk through the portal.

"It's his fault!" Megatronus joked in an imitation of a youngling pouting and pointed a digit at his son.

Shadowstreaker rolled his optics before following his carrier into the portal. Megatronus followed behind after a brief moment. I waited until I managed to get my laughter under control before walking through. Vector helped by sending calm through our bond, which helped a lot. I eventually just shook my helm and then followed the others through, being closely followed after by Vector.

There was a brief moment of silence as we stood around. I was still smiling, having enjoyed this visit so far.

"So," I said, breaking the silence. "Can you tell us what you wanted to show us? Please?"

My sire simply smiled and suddenly the scenery around us changed and we were suddenly in a city completely made of silver and gold metal.

Every building around us towered over us, which fit with the pictures I had seen in the data pads I had read about Cybertron. When I looked up I could see roadways twisted through the air above us, with Cybertronians in alt modes speeding along them. Beyond them and even beyond the tops of the buildings, I could make out that there were some bots flying above the city in their flight modes. Beyond them was something else that I couldn't make out.

Other Cybertronians of all sizes and colors were also milling about this level as I turned my attention to it. Several were walking by, while others were entering and exiting buildings. Some younglings even ran by, laughing and yelling to each other about stuff in Cybertronian. I could make out much of what they were saying, but I was still working on learning the language, so there were some parts that I couldn't make out. Every now and then a bot in alt mode would speed by, dodging the bots milling about easily.

One thing I noticed was that Cybertronian alt modes were a lot different than the alt modes we had on Earth. No two vehicles I saw were alike in appearance. Some were curvy and artistic. Some appeared to be built for speed and others for other functions. If a bot ever drove around Earth in a Cybertronian alt mode, they would likely stand out. It would probably draw suspicion. Now I understood why the bots all got new alt modes when they came to Earth.

We weren't on the ground level either, as there was a space between where we stood and a building to the side whose entrance must've been somewhere else. Looking through the space between the road and buildings, I could see another level with mechs and femmes milling about. I was aware of Vector walking over with me as I continued looking.

"Where are we anyway?" I asked as I took the many, many levels below us.

"Iacon, the capital city of Cybertron," Vector answered.

"Cool," I said, optics widening in awe. Far, far beyond the last level I could see, there as a blue light coming from an unknown source.

"It's quite a sight, isn't it?" he asked.

I nodded. "Is that the Core glowing down there?" I asked in awe.

"The outer shell of it, yes," Vector said. I peered further over the edge, but Vector put a hand on my shoulder and firmly pulled me back a bit. "I wouldn't advise doing that."

I blinked at my sire, sensing his concern. "Isn't it a hologram anyway?" I asked.

"Well, yes, but I don't want you to get into the habit of leaning over edges," Vector said.

I smiled at him. "Don't worry, sire, I'm more careful than that," I said. I looked around at the bots running around, smiling at a couple of seeker younglings that appeared to be twins that were playing across the way as what appeared to be their creators talked with another bot. "How many bots lived here, anyway?" I asked, becoming curious. I had never seen so many bots before.

"At the peak of the Golden Age the population of Cybertron was over eighteen trillion," Vector supplied.

I gaped and stared at my sire in disbelief. There were…that many Cybertronians at one point in time? Comparatively speaking there were only a handful left now. It was…mind boggling. And from what I've read in the archives, there were also colony worlds. That was….a lot of Cybertronians.

"Shade'?" Vector asked after I had merely stood gaping at him for a moment.

I shook my helm to clear my processor and then looked at my sire. "I'm sorry, I was just amazed at how many Cybertronians there once were," I said.

Vector chuckled. "It is a lot more than there is now," he said. "We wanted to show you two how many of us there once were. That's not the main reason, but it is one of the reasons."

"What's the main reason?" I asked curiously.

"Sight-seeing," my sire said with a smile.

I blinked for a moment before walking with Vector to join Solus and Megatronus. Shadowstreaker seemed to be dazed or something, but it wasn't long before he caught up.

"So, what are we going to see?" Shadowstreaker asked once he had caught up with us.

"We are going to the Decagon," my sire replied. "It's the control center for planetary security and defense."

"Wait, I thought we were going sight-seeing," I said. "Why are we going to see a military base?" I tilted my helm at my sire in confusion.

"Because Cybertronian military bases are very different from human ones," Shadowstreaker said vaguely.

I turned my confused expression to Shadowstreaker in expectation of some kind of explanation. After a few moments, I realized he wasn't going to elaborate and rolled my optics at his unclear statement and then turned my attention to the buildings around us.

Both Shadowstreaker and I didn't speak very much after that, only making an occasional observation about a few different buildings that caught our optics, but beyond that, we were completely silent. I commented on what appeared to be a pet shop as we passed it and a few others, but always as just a passing comment.

Our creators were a different story, they would point at the massive structures around us and talk to each other about how they remembered when that building was in its planning stages with a nostalgic look in their optics. It was clear that they were enjoying looking at Cybertron just as much as Shadowstreaker and I. I could feel my sire's sadness and regret through our bond. I could understand, because he probably missed being able to be on Cybertron for real and he had told me earlier on that he regretted that I had not been able to grow up on Cybertron.

As I looked around, I moved slightly closer to Vector and once I felt I was close enough to hug him while moving without falling down in the process, I reached over and hugged him, walking forward awkwardly. He seemed surprised, but chuckled as I sent comfort and love his way through our bond. He sent gratefulness and love back to me as he wrapped a single arm around me and I smiled. Once I was satisfied he felt better I released my hug and then fell back into step with Shadowstreaker behind our creators with a smile on my face and returned to looking around at the amazing buildings.

We continued walking for another half breem before Solus, Megatronus and Vector came to an abrupt halt. I was so busy looking at our surroundings that I didn't realize they had stopped until I ran right into my sire. Vector merely chuckled and indicated for me to at something and when I did, I felt my optics widen in awe. Apparently we were at the Decagon.

The gigantic fortress was no less than a hundred kilometers tall, making the buildings near it look small, and considering how large those buildings were to begin with, that was saying a lot. At the top of the Decagon, there were five pillars that were constantly moving in several different directions in such a way that it made them appear to have minds of their own. Above the pillars, there were two sections of the Decagon that floated over the main structure. The first section had smaller versions of the pillars it floated above, and the second section was spinning over the first and seemed to be changing its very shape every couple of micro-klicks. All in all, the Decagon was breath-taking.

"Whoa," I said, completely in awe. "You weren't kidding when you said Cybertronian military bases were very different from human ones, were ya?"

"No, though to be honest, I am surprised by the Decagon's appearance," Shadowstreaker said.

I turned away from the Decagon to give Shadowstreaker an inquisitive look. "It seemed like you already knew what the Decagon looked like when you found out we were coming here," I said. "But now you're surprised by its appearance? How does that work?"

"A video game can only do so much to give you an idea of what something looks like, and the video game I played that had the Decagon in it doesn't do the real one any justice." he replied with a shrug and turned away from the Decagon to look back at me.

"I have to agree with you there, the Decagon is breath taking," I said as I looked back up at the fortress in amazement.

"That is what Megatronus and I were going for when we designed it," Solus told me with a smile.

"Wait," Shadowstreaker said. "You two," he pointed his middle and index digits at his creators. "Designed the Decagon?" he asked in surprise.

I looked to the three members of the Thirteen as well, now curious.

Vector chuckled. "They did. In fact, there are few structures on Cybertron that we didn't have a servo in helping to create." He said with a bit of pride in his voice, clearly referring to all of the Thirteen and not just the three currently present members.

"Really? Are there any more that are as breath-taking as the Decagon?" I asked Vector excitedly.

Vector smiled down at me. "Not as physically large, no. But, there is one other place we created that in some ways is even more magnificent than the Decagon, and it is a place that I am certain you will enjoy, my Little One." He said with an affectionate smile and started to walk in a different direction than we arrived.

"Oooh," I said as I walked after Vector, curious about what he meant. "What place is it?"

Vector gave another smile. "It is the Hall of Records," he said simply.

I took a sharp breath. "We're going to the Hall of Records?" I asked excitedly. That was the place where Optimus worked prior to becoming Optimus Prime. And the place where Alpha Trion once resided, writing in his legendary book, the Covenant.

"Yes," Vector replied.

"Yay!" I cheered, jumping up and down and clapping. After a micro-klik, I again realized what I was doing and stopped. "Not again..." I said quietly as I covered my face with my hands in embarrassment. My door wings twitched a little downward as well.

The others laughed at me for a moment and I was sure one of them was gonna tease me about my second outburst during this visit. I was supposed to be a Prime, not a youngling. I buried my face further in my hands, but when I didn't hear any teasing, I peeked out to discover that the others had become distracted.

Sitting on a nearby bench was a femme that looked remarkably like Arcee. She was a darker shade of blue than Arcee was and she lacked the wing-like appendages on her back plates. Other than that though, she looked exactly like the femme I have known since arriving in the Transformers universe. She was the same height, she had the same faceplate. She even had the same pink highlights on her wrists, pedes and the top and sides of her helm. And she had the same azure blue optics that were kind and battle-hardened.

I glanced over at Shadowstreaker to see that he was staring at the Arcee look-alike before a shouted greeting drew her attention, as well as ours, off to her right. I blinked at the sight of the mech that looked almost exactly like Shadowstreaker. He was shorter, about five feet shorter, and instead of jet black, his armor was a light grey. Unlike my cousin, who was a triple-changer, he appeared to only have a ground-based alt mode and also didn't have a silver mark on the side of his helm.

As we watched, the Shadowstreaker look-alike reached the Arcee look-alike and they both offered a short greeting, which I couldn't hear, before they both leaned forward and pressed their lips together in a quick kiss and started walking in the direction the five of us had come from.

I giggled and then had a thought, turning to my fellow Primes. "Hey, even the holographic versions of them are together," I said in a humor filled voice. "Perhaps he should take a hint, don't you think."

My words had my sire snickering while Solus doubled over in a burst of laughter and Megatronus had to lean heavily against his staff to keep himself from falling over from laughing too hard. I looked back to Shadowstreaker as he turned to look at us and put on my best innocent expression.

"What did you say that caused this?" he asked, gesturing at my snickering sire and his laughing creators.

I smiled. "I said that even the holographic versions of you and Arcee are together, so maybe you should take the hint and make your move!" I replied happily, causing his creators to laugh a bit harder before they finally managed to sober themselves.

The glare he sent me was intimidating, but I merely continued to smile, though my door wings twitched back a little. After a moment, he sighed and shook his head.

"I will not make a move when she doesn't have feelings for me," Shadowstreaker said as we continued our walk to the Hall of Records.

"You don't know what you're missing," I said in a teasing tone. Of course, I didn't really know either. After all Ratchet and I had just admitted our feelings for each other pretty much just before I came here.

"Now son, you don't know that," Megatronus said, grinning as he crossed his servos. "Stop being so stubborn and make your move with Arcee."

"We all know you liiiike her already," I said cheekily. "It's only a matter of matter time before she figures it out on her own anyway."

Shadowstreaker rolled his optics at the two of us. "Maybe that's a good thing," Shadowstreaker said in an irritated voice. "Then she could turn me down and I could get over my crush."

The urge to face-palm had never hit me so strongly before. In fact, that's just what I did. I wondered if this was how the others had felt every time they had realized how oblivious I was. I shook my helm, muttering about stubborn mechs that needed to open their optics.

"Are you so certain she would turn you down?" Vector asked, raising an optic ridge.

"Because she's a warrior that's been fighting since long before the human race had even developed writing, and I am a human turned into a Cybertronian that isn't even a quarter of a vorn old. How could she have an interest in me?" Shadowstreaker asked rhetorically.

His words made me pause and think. If you thought about it, it wasn't any different for Ratchet and myself. Comparatively I wasn't anywhere near as old as even Bumblebee, the youngest of us, but Ratchet's been around and an adult since well before the war. But he still liked me. With that, his excuse seemed to fall flat to me, but I decided maybe it wasn't best to mention it.

"Besides, I don't want to ruin our friendship over a stupid crush. So I plan on keeping it to myself as much as possible," he finished.

There was a brief moment of silence before anyone spoke again. Megatronus was the one who broke the silence, scoffing at his son's words.

"Why can't you just admit that you love her?" Megatronus asked in a exasperated tone. "All the signs are there."

There was a few moments of silence in which it seemed Shadowstreaker was in deep thought, and rather close to glitching from his sire's words. I could feel my sire's worry over his lack of verbal response.

"He probably just feels awkward basically seeing himself kiss Arcee," I said, voicing my theory as to why he looked so glitchy. Then, in a much quieter voice I mused to myself. "Though probably not as awkward as when he saw Arcee in the wash racks…"

Shadowstreaker glared at me again and I could've sworn I heard his cooling fans kick on. "How do you know about that?" he asked even as he shifted his glare toward our creators, who were all smirking and chuckling.

"Well," I said, drawing out the word. "They said they showed you portions of my life and that they thought it would only be fair if I saw some from yours." I paused a moment as my door wings drooped a little. "You're not mad, are you?"

Shadowstreaker looked at me a moment before speaking. "No, no I'm not mad," he said.

I brightened a little. "Good! Because you're scary when you're mad," I said.

Shadowstreaker's left optic twitched. "They showed you my fight with Springer," he stated matter-of-factly. He side-stepped to avoid a passing Cybertronian.

I nodded. "Yup, he totally deserved that by the way," I said. "Especially for his sleazy comments," I added with a bit of anger creeping into my voice.

"What else did they show you?" he asked in what sounded like curiosity.

"Oh!" I said and then happily recounted what they had shown me to him. I covered everything they had shown me, in perhaps more detail than necessary. I was pretty sure it probably freaked him out hearing me recount events from his life, but I was sure he could do the same thing to me.

I was going to mention something about Arcee, but Vector seemed to catch on and sent me feelings through our bond to let it go. I looked back at him and raised an optic ridge. He raised one back, looking slightly amused, but also a bit reprimanding. I was beating a dead horse, as the human sayings go. I could tell Shadowstreaker all I wanted to get his aft in gear, but he wouldn't until he was ready. There seemed to be an unspoken rule about pushing bots to admit to something they aren't ready to admit. No bot had forced Ratchet or I to tell each other our feelings, it was only right that I respected that by not pushing Shadowstreaker. I sighed and reframed from mentioning it any further.

I turned my attention back to our surroundings as we walked. It was an amazing place to see, though the thought that it was no longer like this was a sobering one. I wondered if there would ever be a time when we could…fix things, rebuild Cybertron and all that. I wasn't sure, but I knew if we were ever able to rebuild Cybertron that it would make a lot of bots happy.

This time when we stopped, I didn't have to run into anybot to realize it. When we did, I blinked and then looked up at the building that was the Hall of Records. It may not be as large as the Decagon had been, but it was still quite large. It was about the same height as other buildings surrounding it, but it was wider around than any of the others. It was made of a golden-hued alloy and had the same curving architectural style as the rest of the city we had seen. We were nowhere near the top floor, so it was a simple matter to see that it had numerous floors. I wondered briefly what floor Optimus had worked on.

"Are we gonna go in?" I asked, still staring in awe at the building.

My sire chuckled and I could feel his amusement through our bond. "I'm afraid we can'tdo that, you'll never want to leave," he said in a humor filled voice.

"That is true," I muttered absently. "But it's just so cool..."

"What has you so amazed?" Shadowstreaker asked. "I get the feeling it isn't completely because of how the Hall of Records contains our entire history."

I turned to look at him. "This is where Optimus worked when he was Orion Pax," I said. "And it was also home to Alpha Trion for a time." _And it was also where the Autobots had had their base, _I thought as I turned back to the Hall.

Vector chuckled at my clear awe of the place. I wanted so much to go in and see what was inside, but I didn't even know if I could separate myself from the others to do so. They were apparently hesitant to actually take us inside because they knew I wouldn't want to leave for a while. I knew that if I ever had the chance to go to Cybertron in my reality, the Hall of Records would be one place I would want to go. It wasn't as large or aesthetically pleasing as the Decagon, but it was perhaps one of the most historically important places on Cybertron. It was home to a vast amount of information about the history of Cybertron-stretching from billions years past in what many considered to be mythology right up through the war. I would love to get a chance to do some reading on all of that. We only had a portion of that information in the library.

I wasn't sure how long we stood there, admiring the Hall of Records, but even if we had stayed longer I still would've been disappointed when the scenery returned to the desert of the Pocket Universe. I felt my door wings droop.

"Aw, the visit's over already?" I asked sadly.

"I'm afraid so, Little One," Vector said, placing a hand on my helm and rubbing it affectionately. "You and Shadowstreaker need to return to your respective realities."

"Oh," I said, a little disappointed that our visit was over.

"Don't sound so depressed," Solus said. "I'm sure you'll be happy to see Ratchet." Her voice took on a teasing tone at that part.

My door wings twitched a little as my cooling fans kicked on. I stuck my tongue out at Solus in response to her teasing causing her, Megatronus and Shadowstreaker to laugh.

"And Shadowstreaker will be happy to see Arcee again," I did my own bit of teasing, giving a grin as I looked at the black mech.

He narrowed his optics at me in clear displeasure and I merely continued grinning until I was suddenly pulled into a hug by my sire.

"We'll see you next time, my Little One," he said. "Try to stay out of trouble."

"I can't make promises," I said, hugging him back. I sent love through our parental bond and felt him send some back.

"Just try," Vector said, chuckling slightly.

I didn't get a chance to respond again as Shadowstreaker and I were sent back to our realities at that moment.


	32. Covert Missions

**A/N: **Yay! Another chapter! Finally! About time, huh? So many days this round that I haven't written anything at all on. I hate those days…Starting this chapter I really had absolutely no idea what was going to happen in it. Then my muse decided, "Hey no new Bots have shown up for a while" and then that led to me being inspired to write a covert mission. It turned out a little differently than I had in mind when I thought "covert", but I still like it. :)

On another note, I took my first exam of the semester today for my Plant Bio class. I got a B! :D Not bad for not having my text book yet. Seriously, I want to strangle the finaid people about now. Their fault I missed this week's assignment in one of my art classes. And that professor won't respond to emails! :| Arrgh! I feel like throwing something. Hmm…*throws a buzz saw at Silas*

Speaking of Silas, anyone see the latest Prime episode? Anyone besides me feel gleeful at Silas's fate? The fragger got what was coming to him. I mean, seriously, the dude was like a human version of Megatron. Good thing Megatron still didn't like him. I have never approved of Megatron's decisions in the past….but I'm actually with him on that one…Never thought I would grin about something like that…

On another note, Smokescreen is growing on me after he helped Bulkhead. Speaking of Bulky, I am so glad they seem to be bringing him back to full function. You have no idea how mad I was that they hurt a 'Bot so badly. Seriously, I will stop watching the show if they kill off any of the 'Bots we know and love. :|

Anyway, this chapter is finally done at 6,109 words. :D

**Scripture of the Update:**

"_The wise in heart will receive commands, but a prating fool will fall." –Proverbs 10:8 New King James version_

**Author's Replies:**

**Devil-O-Angel: **Indeed. :) Why wouldn't she tell them?

**Jayna Prime: **Glad you liked it so much sis. ^.^

**FoxyAlterEgos: **Thanks, though it kinda makes me want to quote Stitch, "It's so cute….AND FLUFFY!" Lol. You're welcome. :) Unfortunately, waiting is part of life.

**MusicalPrime: **Thanks! :) Oh, well, I guess I'm tickled to death. *dies from being tickled* XD

**Sci-Fifan95: **Yup, yup and great to you too. :) See ya soon!

**Mercedes Wolfcry: **Lol. Glad you enjoyed the chapter. :)

**Princess Thil Galel: **Glad you liked it. ^.^

**Luna Prime- Awesomeness: **I know, me too! Lol. Glad you liked the chapter! :D I try my best!

**mchap1154: **Glad you liked it. :) And don't worry, you'll see some of that in this chapter. ;P

**Vivian Hale: **He is stubborn, ain't he? Lol. Thanks and yes they are. Lol. Well Jazz, there is. O.o He is one scary Decepticon… He was in the third movies, one of the ones who chased Sentinel and the 'Bots protecting him just before Sentinel went all traitor on us. Worst. Scene. Ever. :| :'(

**KnockOut'sFanGirl221:** It does sound amazing. I wish I could go there…*sigh* Glad you liked it! :D

**LunarShadowAngel: **Glad you like it! :D

**Sky'sLimit5: **Lol. Ratchet's just a blunt mech. :P But that's part of why Shade' loves him. :) Glad you enjoyed the trip. :)

**Angel3055: **Glad you liked it. Of course I'll continue! :D

**prowlfan1011: **Cool. I have one of those too. :) I will take a look.

**Patchwork Knightess: **Glad you liked it! :D

**TransFanFreak101: ***hugs back* Lol. Glad you enjoy them so much. :D My war with Satan? Still going. But I am claiming victory in Jesus name. :) Of course you can join my cause! You mean the Star Saber? As a relic left behind by Prima, Optimus, being Prima's descendent, is now in possession of it. We have just yet to see him use it in action or anything. :)

Anyway, now, on with the chapter!

**Chapter 32: Covert Missions**

I yawned and stretched out as my systems onlined. I sighed, a little disappointed I hadn't been able to spend more time with my sire and in the hologram of Cybertron. I stretched my arms out again as I sat up on my berth and looked around. Everything was still as it had been when I had walked into my quarters after being released from the med bay. I chuckled a little. I had been so surprised by everything I hadn't really responded to Ratchet properly when he revealed his feelings for me. The mech had gone through such trouble just to express them by fixing up my quarters.

I shook my helm at the thought that he had done such a thing. I appreciated it, but I thought it hadn't been necessary. _Maybe not, but he wanted to do something he knew I'd appreciate,_ I thought to myself and it made my spark warm to realize he had wanted to make me happy.

I got off my berth as I thought for a moment, wondering when his creation day was. Or maybe I just wouldn't worry about it and find something nice to do without an occasion. I wasn't sure, but I would find something. Maybe I could fix one of those tools that got broken, or go on a hunt for the ones the twins hid and have yet to be found.

I sighed, figuring I would figure something out later as I just wanted to see the mech right now. We hadn't really talked any beyond admitting our feelings for each other. Well, that and kiss. I shook my helm as my door wings twittered and my spark warmed in happiness. Really, Shadowstreaker had no idea what he was missing by being stubborn about his reality's Arcee.

I poked my helm into the med bay to find the only mech to spend a significant amount of time in there without being injured. I smiled and walked in as he turned to see who was intruding upon his domain. His usually stern expression softened when he saw me happily walking in.

"Good morning Ratchet," I said as I walked over to the Energon dispenser and got a cube.

"Good morning, Shadebreaker," he replied, watching as I took a sip of Energon. "I expected you to be here an hour ago."

I tilted my helm. "Huh," I said. "I just woke up actually. Is that abnormal? I haven't really checked the time yet…"

"You usually online an hour ago," he said, frowning as he looked at me in worry.

"Hm," I said. "I was tired last night. And maybe my visit with the Thirteen has something to do with it."

"You've visited them again?" Ratchet asked.

I nodded. "Though not all of them," I said before taking a sip of my Energon. "It was just a social visit. It was just my sire, Solus, Megatronus, Shadowstreaker and I. It was a bit of family time. They showed Shadowstreaker and I some awesome things." I grinned, my door wings constantly moving as I remembered the excitement of my visit.

Ratchet chuckled. "I'm sure you'll tell us all about it," he said as he walked over.

"You bet," I said, finishing off my cube and setting the empty dish on the counter. I hugged Ratchet once he arrived by my side and he hugged me tightly back. I gave a contented sigh as I cuddled into his hug. "I am glad we finally had that talk," I nearly whispered.

"I am too," Ratchet said, holding me gently in his arms.

"Hey Ratchet!" a loud and familiar voice broke our moment before we could do anything else. "Whoa!" There was a clang as the perpetrator fell to the ground and laughter filled the air.

I looked up as Ratchet released me and looked at the perpetrator with an irritated expression. I shook my helm as I saw Sideswipe fallen on the floor with Sunstreaker laughing at him.

"Wow, Sides'," I said. "Is your balance off? I don't recall you ever falling down randomly."

Sunstreaker snickered as Sideswipe pouted.

"I was just caught off guard," Sideswipe said. "You guys finally did it, huh?"

"Did what?" I asked.

"You know," Sideswipe said and wiggled his optic ridges suggestively. It wasn't long before a wrench hit his helm. "Ow! What gives Hatchet?"

"Can it, Sideswipe," Ratchet growled, holding another wrench threateningly. "It's too early for that. We are simply not rushing things."

Sideswipe simply glared as he rubbed his helm. He went to open his mouth, but he was stopped by Sunstreaker whacking his helm. He then turned his glare to his twin, who glared right back. They seemed to be having a conversation over their bond.

"Excuse me, but is there a reason you two are here?" I asked, a little upset that they had ruined the moment.

"Oh! Yeah!" Sideswipe said, returning to his usual cheery self. "Prowl is demanding reports."

"He sent us to deliver the message as punishment for a prank that didn't quite warrant being put in the brig," Sunstreaker said, looking displeased at the punishment.

"If that is all, you may leave," Ratchet said and I got the feeling he really wanted them gone.

"Sure thing," Sideswipe said, gaining a huge grin on his face. "We'll leave you two love birds to play."

I rolled my optics as the twins disappeared from the med bay. "They are crazy," I said, shaking my helm.

"Indeed," Ratchet said. He turned to one of his work tables and began working on something.

I walked over and peeked at the instrument he was walking on. "What are you working on?" I asked curiously.

"I'm fixing a piece of equipment the twins broke the other day," Ratchet said with a sigh. "It seems I am always fixing something."

"I could fix it for you," I offered, looking at the piece of equipment. It didn't look too hard to figure out.

Ratchet paused and looked at me, though I was still looking at the object on the table. "Well," he said. "You have learned from whenever you have helped me work in the past. Are you sure? You could be doing anything else."

"I could do a lot of things, Ratchet," I said. "But what I _want_ to do is help you."

"Very well," he said. "I will let you work on this while I work on those reports for Prowl."

"Ok," I said, smiling brightly.

Ratchet moved away from the table and he gave me a brief kiss before he went and sat at his desk to work on his reports. I sighed happily before taking over the repair job. We each worked in silence, concentrated on doing the tasks at hand. After all, the faster we completed them, the sooner we could just spend time together. I was just connecting the last wire when the door to the med bay opened and Optimus walked in carrying Elita, who seemed to be about out of it.

"Optimus? What happened?" Ratchet asked as he immediately moved to the Prime's side and directed him to lay Elita on a berth.

"She seems to have contracted an illness of some kind," Optimus explained. "She didn't seem well all morning and then she just collapsed."

"Hmm," Ratchet said as he ran scans over the femme. "A viral code has gotten into her systems. I'll get to work on an anti-virus to help her systems fight it."

Optimus nodded before grabbing a chair and sitting next to Elita where she lay on the berth.

"Optimus…" Elita murmured in her half aware state, reaching out her hand.

"I am here, Elita," Optimus said, taking her hand in his.

I smiled at the tenderness of the gesture. I knew they both had feelings for each other, but that neither had admitted so to the other. It hurt me to see Elita not feeling well though, she was my friend and I knew how much she meant to Optimus, who was like an older brother to me. I walked over and sat opposite Optimus as Elita slipped into recharge. Optimus looked up at me and blinked for a moment.

"Shadebreaker," he nodded. "What brings you here?" I noticed that he hadn't released Elita's hand even though she was now in recharge.

"I was spending time with Ratchet," I said, smiling widely. I pointed behind me. "And helping fix things the twins broke while he did his reports for Prowl."

Optimus blinked before a brief smile appeared. "I hear you two finally talked to each other," he said. "Congratulations."

"Thanks," I said, smiling. "Now if only you would tell Elita yours everything would be peachy."

Optimus shook his head. "You may be able to allow yourself the distraction, but as the Prime bearing the Matrix I have more on my shoulders…"

"Stop right there," I said, crossing my arms as I stared at his shocked face. I had never interrupted him before. "You keep saying it would be a distraction you shouldn't have. But there is nothing wrong with you loving Elita." I nodded to the recharging femme. "How do you think she would feel if she knew you thought she was only a distraction?"

"She's not just a distraction," Optimus said, sounding a bit put out and he actually glared at me. He opened his mouth to say something else, but then caught a look at my triumphant expression and paused. "You were making a point."

"Yes, I was," I nodded. I tilted my helm at the mech. "You deserve to be happy and so does Elita. You should give it a chance."

"Elita doesn't feel the same way," Optimus shook his helm. He looked saddened by the thought.

"Assumptions from you Optimus?" I asked, raising an optic ridge.

His optics darted to me and I was sure he was gonna ask what I meant, but we were interrupted by Ratchet returning.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything important," Ratchet said, holding what was probably an anti-virus for Elita.

"Not really, just a friendly conversation between Primes," I said, moving over a bit to allow Ratchet access to one of Elita's arms.

"Have you told him about your visit to the Pocket Universe yet?" Ratchet asked as he administered the anti-virus. "She should start feeling better in a few hours, but I'd like to keep her here until I am certain the virus is fully gone."

"That is good to hear," Optimus said with clear relief. He then looked at me curiously. "You have been to the Pocket Universe again?"

I nodded, smiling. "Last night," I said. "I haven't told Ratchet the details yet either. It was just me, Shadowstreaker and our creators this time around and there was no real purpose other than to hang out. They showed us some pretty awesome stuff."

"Such as?" Optimus prompted.

I leaned forward, my optics widening and my door wings fluttering in my excitement as I remembered the visit. "Like dinosaurs," I said. "Did you know that when a species is on the verge of extinction, the Thirteen will bring them into the Pocket Universe to protect them from extinction?"

From the looks Optimus and Ratchet gave me, neither of them were aware of that fact.

"No," Optimus said. "I also do not know what a dinosaur is."

I blinked. "They're these huge creatures that lived on Earth once upon a time ago," I said. "You would probably be able to learn more about them by looking them up on the internet than listening to me." I rubbed my helm sheepishly.

Elita stirred a bit, but she didn't come out of recharge as we all fell silent in fear that we would finish waking her up if we so much as whispered. None of us spoke again until we were sure she was once again fully in recharge, knowing she needed her rest.

"Perhaps we should take this conversation to a different spot," Optimus said, slowly removing his hand from Elita's as he placed it on her chassis.

"Indeed," Ratchet said.

We moved to a spot in the med bay where we knew we wouldn't wake the recharging femme, but we were still close if she woke up and looked for someone.

"What else did they show you while you were there?" Ratchet asked.

I grinned, probably looking like an excited youngling. "Cybertron in the Golden Age," I said. My grin grew when both mech's optics widened and they stared at me for a moment.

"You saw Cybertron in the Golden Age?" Ratchet asked, sounding shocked.

"That must've been an amazing sight," Optimus said more to himself than to me.

I nodded as I continued to grin. "It was amazing," I said. My optics widened in amazement when I continued. "I could look down and see the outer shell of the Core."

Optimus smiled fondly, likely remembering the sight himself from when he lived in Iacon. "Iacon was the only place on Cybertron where you could see the Core without going to the lower levels," he said.

"It was a magnificent sight to see for those who slowed down enough to look," Ratchet said.

I nodded. "It was," I said, remembering the sight.

"What else did they show you on Cybertron?" Ratchet asked curiously.

"They showed us two places," I said. "The first was the Decagon, which was an amazing sight."

"The Decagon was always an amazing place," Optimus said. "When you stood in it long enough, it felt like you were standing in a place of safety and security. It was as if the building itself was the entity performing its role rather than the bots working inside it."

I grinned. "It was built by Solus and Megatronus," I said.

"That would explain a lot," Ratchet said, looking thoughtful. "The building always seemed to have its own aura and some of the machines in it were beyond our scientists' understanding."

"The Thirteen actually had a hand in creating many of the buildings in Iacon," I explained.

"Amazing," Optimus said. He blinked and looked at me curiously. "What else did they show you?"

"The Hall of Records was the only other place they showed us," I said. "It was an amazing sight, I think. I would've loved to go inside." I sighed, thinking about all that I could learn from a trip to the Hall of Records.

Optimus chuckled. "You probably would've never left," he said, looking amused.

I grinned. "That's exactly why my sire said we weren't going inside," I said.

"Mmm," Elita's mumbling voice had our attention turn from our conversation. "Optimus?"

Optimus wasted no time in going to Elita's side as Ratchet and I looked on. I smiled at them as they started speaking softly.

"You know, they are just as stubborn as we are," I whispered to Ratchet as he wrapped an arm around me and held me pressed against his side.

"Indeed," Ratchet replied. He planted a gentle kiss on the top of my helm. "They'll come around."

"She'll be alright soon, won't she?" I asked.

"Elita is a strong femme," Ratchet said. "Scans show that her systems and the anti-virus are well on their way to fighting the virus off, but she will remain in here until tomorrow morning."

"That's good that she'll be alright," I said.

"How is your side feeling?" Ratchet asked, gently massaging the area that had been wounded.

"It doesn't hurt at all," I reported, smiling.

"Good," Ratchet said. "My scans showed that it is fully repaired, but I wanted to be sure there wasn't any lingering discomfort."

Before either of us could say anymore, an alarm started sounding and we all perked up, except for Elita, who had drifted back into recharge. Optimus, Ratchet and I left the med bay quickly and headed for the Ops Center, where Prowl, Arcee and Jazz were already at the main station.

"Optimus," Prowl said. "We're picking up a distress signal from somewhere in the Gobi Desert located in Asia. The signal is coming from here," the screen zoomed in on a northern part of China where there was a large expanse of desert and a symbol marked the location of the signal, "and appears to be Autobot."

"Dat's not all," Jazz reported, pressing some buttons. Another symbol showed up on the screen a few kliks away from the distress signal. "We have also picked up a 'Con signal nearby. We don' know if it's a ship, a single 'Con or an army of 'em. An' it's moving toward da distress signal."

"Could be a trap," Arcee said.

"But shouldn't we at least check it out?" I asked. "If it's not, there's 'Bots in trouble."

"I agree," Optimus said. "Jazz, I would like you to go with Shadebreaker to check it out. This will be a covert operation, be careful not to be seen."

"Gotcha Boss Bot," Jazz said, giving a salute.

"Yes sir," I said, giving my own salute.

It wasn't long before Jazz and I were driving through the Ground Bridge in our alt modes to our mission.

We exited the Ground Bridge in the Gobi Desert. As with all deserts, it was a whole lot of nothing green. There were cactuses, but even those were sparse in this area. Being a desert, there was a whole lot of sand and a whole lot of rock. We arrived in a large open area with some cliffs nearby and a valley appeared to be in those cliffs.

_Deserts always look the same to me, _I thought to myself.

"A'right," Jazz said. "Da distress signal's comin' from this way." He pointed in a direction where our view was obscured by some very large boulders and a random cactus that sat to the side.

I simply nodded and we walked over to the boulders silently. We had to climb a little to be able to see over them, because they were so large, even to us Cybertronians. I peered over the rock to see what was on the other side and remain hidden just in case there were 'Cons on the other side. Unfortunately there were.

"Looks like da 'Cons got here first," I told Jazz in a quiet voice as I watched the Vehicons guarding the crashed ship.

"Yea'," Jazz said. "Ah'm gonna check it out, ya stay here an' com me if ya see any danger."

"Alright," I agreed, knowing that he was the more likely of the two of us to go unseen while checking it out.

Jazz departed from our hiding spot and very stealthily made his way to the crashed ship. I remained put and watched over the edge of the boulder as Jazz snuck onto the ship. I also kept an optic on the Decepticons lurking around the ship. Once he was in, I turned my attention completely to the Decepticons around the ship.

After watching for any sign that Jazz had been spotted for several minutes, I noticed a couple of Decepticons walking toward my hiding spot and I ducked down quickly. I ducked as low as I could and cringed when the 'Cons walked to my side of the boulder. I knew I couldn't change sides as it would put me in direct visual range of every Decepticon patrolling near the ship.

"Megatron's not going to be pleased if we fail to find the second Autobot," one of the 'Cons said as I silently snuck closer, keeping careful to keep in a spot they couldn't see me.

"Yeah, but we got that loud mouth Warpath locked up nice and tight on the Nemesis already," the second said as I ducked directly behind the two, which by now still kept me from being seen by the others.

They paused in their steps for a moment and I froze.

"Hey," one of them said after a moment of silence. "Do you feel like we're being watched?"

"Yeah, a little," the second said. They turned around, but I quickly darted behind the one on my left. Unfortunately they turned toward each other.

"Behind you!" the one I wasn't behind said.

The one I was behind turned his head, trying to see me, but I kept ducking out his line of sight even as his partner tried to get a clear shot on me while he called his friends for back-up.

"**Jazz! I got a problem!" **I said through my comlink. I reached to my back plates for that new hammer of mine as the one I hid behind began to fully turn.

"Die Autoscum!" the Decepticon I had hid behind said as he and his partner took aim at me.

As I took my hammer out, Jazz appeared right behind the 'Cons and tapped one on the shoulder as he grinned.

"What the-?" the 'Con said, turning around but he was cut off when Jazz shot him in the face at the same time I smashed the one still facing me with my hammer. I brought my hammer down on the 'Con a second time when he tried to stand up.

"Well, that was kind of anti-climatic…" I said, resting the hammer on my shoulder. I was almost disappointed.

"It ain't over yet," Jazz pointed out, pointing toward the numerous Decepticons now converging on our position.

"I didn't see that many a minute ago…" I said, seeing as how I had only seen about a dozen outside the ship, but now there were twice that many if you counted the two that we just offlined.

"There were several in da ship," Jazz said.

We took cover behind the boulder as the Decepticons started firing at us. I stuck my hammer back in my back plates and deployed my Ion Blasters and peered over the boulder before shooting at the 'Cons. Suddenly I heard engines and ducked down again and looked up. My optics widened as eight Decepticons seekers transformed and landed on the ground in front of us, just as some of the grounders rounded the boulder. We were surrounded.

"Rarrgh!" a roar sounded and I looked to find the seekers parting to allow a mech that was quite bit larger than the others to step forward. He held a shield in one servo and a hammer in the other.

"Slag," Jazz said. "There's too many of them. Shade' you need to run, I'll keep them busy."

"I'm not running and leaving you to these guys!" I told him, waving an arm at the group of what was now thirty Decepticons. I agreed that there were too many to take on our own, but I was not going to leave him by himself against these guys.

"Don' worry, Ah'll be fine, now go!" Jazz said.

I was about to reply, but the words died in my mouth as the head of the Con directly in front of me exploded, no sound, no warning, it just exploded. And it made my stomach flip in disgust.

"Snip-" One of the other Cons tried to say, only for his head to explode as well.

"Get-" Another Con started to yell as he dove for cover, only to suffer the same fate as the other two.

The large one with shields let out a battle cry as Jazz and I looked at each other. We nodded to each other and as some of the 'Cons were distracted by trying to find whoever was sniping them and then jumped in opposite ways to avoid the hammer that the brute had brought down right where I had been standing.

One of the 'Cons who had ducked for cover poked his helm out to look around.

"I think I see-" That was as far as that 'Con got before his head also exploded, and almost directly after that two more 'Cons had the helms blown off.

"What the fra-" One of the remaining 'Cons started to say in fear, but he too was cut off as he was sniped.

I caught all of this in my peripheral as I shoot some of the other 'Cons while ducking, rolling and dodging away from shots fired at me and keeping out of attack range of the brute that seemed quite intent on coming after me. Jazz was simultaneously shooting the lesser 'Cons and shooting at the brute's back, though the brute hardly seemed to notice, or at least didn't care.

I saw Jazz land direct shots on the brute's back at least five times, it should've at least slowed him down. The guy was leaking Energon like crazy after all. My confusion turned to a slight amount of fear as a familiar smell hit my nose even as I shot down one of five remaining 'Cons, Jazz got one and whoever was sniping got two of them, leaving only one left. I turned to look at the brute in a moment of horrified realization to confirm my suspicions. I swallowed when I noticed that instead of red, like was the normal color for most Decepticons, the brute's optics were a deep, sickening shade of violet. The same shade as I had seen on Megatron during the fiasco with Unicron.

My distraction cost me as at the moment I was about to turn back to the remaining 'Con besides the brute, said 'Con fired a shot and hit me directly on my left door wing. I grinded my dentas in pain as pain shot through my door wing. The 'Con was shot in the helm a micro-klick later by the sniper and Jazz finally got the brute's attention away from me by jumping on his back and shooting the brute in the helm.

The brute shook his helm, seemingly ignoring the pieces of armor that chipped and fell off as Jazz shot him in the helm. The sniper was also getting in a few shots and I shot at it as well after dimming the pain receptors in my door wing. Jazz gave a signal and I stopped firing, as did the sniper, before Jazz suddenly hopped up and grabbed the end of the brute's hammer as he deployed his sword. He swung down and before I could even blink, Jazz shoved his sword right through the brute's chassis, no doubt piercing through his spark.

"I'll….still…kill…you!" the brute exclaimed as Jazz hopped off and away from the 'Con as it fell to the ground. It was dead the moment it fully hit the ground.

It was only a couple of klicks before Jazz and I were joined on the ground by a mech with mostly green armor, but had some yellow on his armor. We stood around the downed brute, though I remained a fair distance away because the smell was making me a bit nauseous.

"Ah hoped we'd never see dis again," Jazz said.

"Never see what again?" I asked curiously, though I had an idea. I rubbed my shoulder, which was slightly sore from the way my door wing had jerked when it was shot. I could still feel the pain in my door wing even with my sensors in the area dimmed as much as possible without an anesthetic. Before I had dimmed them, the pain was searing, and even now it hurt really bad, but not so bad that I couldn't ignore it.

"The 'Cons are fueling some of their own with Dark Energon," the green mech said. "They did the same thing back on Cybertron, during the waning days of the war."

"Speakin' of da wanin' days of da war," Jazz said, looking at the green mech. "What happened to ya? Ya were suppose' to be on da Ark wit' da rest of us, but instead we got an imposta'."

"I got jumped by some 'Con," the mech said. "By the time I came to, the Ark had already left."

"Anyone gonna fill in the femme on who we're talking to?" I asked, tentatively lifting a hand in the air.

The green mech gave a laugh and grinned at me in a friendly manor. "Name's Hound," he said. "It's a pleasure to meet you…" He held out a hand.

"Shadebreaker," I said, moving just close enough to shake his hand before backing away.

"You alright there?" Hound asked.

"The smell of Dark Energon makes me nauseous," I said. "So I'm trying to stay away enough that I can…not smell it as much…"

"Smell?" Hound asked, looking confused.

Jazz frowned at me, probably noticing the way my door wings were drooping. "She can smell Energon a mile away," he explained to Hound as he walked toward me, away from the fallen brute. "We should get goin', da 'Cons have one of our own and if we stay here, Shadebreaker may not stay on her pedes."

"Right," Hound said. "The 'Cons have taken Warpath to the Nemesis, which is currently parked just beyond those cliffs. They shot us down when we entered the area."

We walked in silence as we carefully made our way toward the other side of the cliffs. We had to dodge a couple of Decepticon patrols, who were likely searching for Hound if what the 'Cons had said meant anything, but we didn't run into any trouble for the most part. We came to a part where we had to duck underneath some rocks and walk sideways through part of the canyon, or valley whatever you want to call it. Due to my wound, keeping my door wings flattened in order to move through the area was slightly more painful than usual, and I grinded my dentas to keep from yelping when the rock scraped across my wounded door wing. I was more than relieved when we exited on the other side.

"Ow," I said quietly, rubbing at my shoulder since I couldn't reach my door wing.

"You gonna be alright there, Shadebreaker?" Hound asked, referring to my wounded door wing.

"I'm fine," I said as I made sure that my pain receptors were still dimmed. They were, which meant I would be in a lot more pain if they weren't and the others could probably tell that just by looking at me.

"Let's get this done wit' so we can get Shade' back to base," Jazz said.

"Right," Hound said, still looking at me in clear worry. "Are you sure you're up for a rescue? A wounded door wing has to be painful."

"It is, but I am fine," I said as we started walking again. "As long as we don't have to crawl through air ducts, I will live."

"We may have to in order to avoid detection," Hound said.

"Dat's why Ah'm goin' in alone," Jazz said. I gave him a look, which he shook his helm at. "You said it yourself, you can't crawl through air ducts with your door wing damaged like dat. And it'll be faster if Ah'm by myself. Hound can stay and help ya fight off any 'Cons dat may find ya out here."

I huffed. "Fine, but be careful," I said. "You better come back in one piece."

"Don' worry, Shade'," Jazz said. "Ah'll come back wit' 'Pathy in tow."

I couldn't help but snort at what was apparently Jazz's nickname for this Warpath mech, even as the silver mech slipped away and toward the large Decepticon ship. I sat down in the place he left Hound and I, which was a small niche in the side of the cliff with only one entrance and exit. It was barely large enough for Hound and I to fit in without touching each other or the walls. He sat as well, though he leaned against the wall since he didn't have an injury that would make it painful. We were silent for several klicks before either of us dared to break the silence.

"So, how long have you been on Earth?" Hound asked.

"All my life actually," I said. "It's a long story that would take longer to explain than we probably have before Jazz gets with this Warpath guy."

"I see," he said and then we fell silent as a 'Con patrol walked by. Judging from the lack of noise, I figured it was safe to say that Jazz hadn't been spotted yet.

We both let out a sigh of relief when the 'Cons kept on going, clearly not having realized we were hiding in this little niche. We were just silent for the rest of our wait for the most part. I taught him how to play tic-tac-toe to pass the time. He was really good at it and out of the ten games we played, before Jazz showed back up with a dark red mech with what appeared to be a cannon on his chest, he won seven of them.

With Jazz back and Warpath free, we snuck back to the area we arrived in and called for a Ground Bridge. Once we got to the base, I was immediately ushered to med bay and so were the two new comers. First Aid looked over the new comers to make sure they were in good shape while Ratchet tended my door wing.

"Slaggit femme, I told you to be careful," Ratchet said, placing a hand on my shoulder to keep me in place as he injected an anesthetic into my back, knowing that I'd jerk away if he didn't hold me in place.

I hissed slightly and flinched when I felt the needle enter a cable. "Well I tried to," I said. "It's hard to come back unwounded when-ow-the 'Cons are fueling their 'Cons with Dark Energon."

Ratchet paused after he took the needle out before he reached over and set it down. He picked up another tool and started working on my now numb door wing. He grumbled under his breath in Cybertronian, only a few of the words I picked up on. He was gentle with my door wing as he worked, despite the anesthetic numbing feeling in the entire wing and part of my back they were connected to. My shoulder wasn't numb though and it still hurt. I rubbed at it slightly after a few klicks of sitting in silence.

"Your shoulder hurts," he observed.

"It got jerked some when I was shot," I said, still rubbing at it.

"I'll look at it when I am finished with your wing," Ratchet said. "You are one stubborn femme to still be standing with a wounded door wing."

"Only because I knew how to dim my pain receptors," I said. "It still hurt a lot, though." I cringed and my door wing twitched away from Ratchet's hands at the memory.

"Easy, Shade'," Ratchet said gently. "I can't repair your door wing if it moves around a lot."

"Sorry," I apologized and focused on keeping my door wings both completely still.

"Were you harmed anywhere else?" Ratchet asked as he continued his work.

I shook my head. "No," I said, not trusting myself to say anything else without my door wings moving.

He continued to work in silence and only spoke to bid the others in the med bay a good night as they left and to speak briefly to Optimus when he came in to check on Elita, who was still in the med bay from the virus. Apparently she would be perfectly well by the end of tomorrow, but both me and her would be in med bay until the end of tomorrow. Optimus stayed long enough to get a report from me about the mission and make sure I would be alright before going to get some recharge. He only really left because Ratchet ordered him to.

"I'm noticing a pattern here," I said randomly to Ratchet after he completed work on my door wing and moved to check my shoulder over.

"What's that?" Ratchet asked.

"I always end up in the med bay," I stated. "Even when I'm not injured."

Ratchet chuckled. "If only you would get injured less," he said. "You worry me whenever you come back injured."

"Coming back injured is better than not coming back though," I said. "I may have a wounded door wing, but I'm still alive."

"True," Ratchet said. He reached over and brought my face around to look at him. "And for that, I am thankful." He said and placed a gentle kiss on my lips.

I smiled up at him when he pulled away and went back to my shoulder. I couldn't help but feel happy about all that had happened recently. Despite the bad parts, I'd have to say that the good parts outweighed the bad parts.


	33. Not All About Fighting

**A/N: **Yay! Update! I am so sorry it took me so long to get back around to this one guys. But hey, at least it didn't take me a month to write this chapter like it took me for this round's AWA and ATG updates. Then it would've taken even longer to update this one!

An update on my job hunt….it is over! It is finally over! Those of you who read ATG already know this, but I now have a job at Subway in the mall a couple blocks away from where I live. Which means, yay walking distance! :D I also have completed my training so I am just waiting for my call to start. I am supposed to find out when my first day is tomorrow. So, wish me luck! :D

And next up is YWOB! :D

**Scripture of the Update:**

"_In a multitude of people is a king's honor, but in the lack of people is the downfall of a prince." ~Proverbs 14:28 New King James Version_

**Author's Replies:**

**Autobot Scout Star: **Glad you liked it. :)

**Autobot-Blurr-221: **You changed your name again? XD Glad you liked it. :)

**Luna Uchiha666: **Thanks! ^.^ I am glad you are enjoying the story. :)

**Sci-Fifan95: **Because Sideswipe is…an idiot. Lol. Yup 'Cons are oblivious. Lol. Thanks! :)

**ilikeanimeandmanga: **Lol. Don't we all? :D I have it now actually! Lol. I have played some the Autobot levels so many times. Lol. Multiplayer is broken from my point of view. Things just need to be changed in it. Escalation is fun, but I miss our nook. My only complaint there really. I am used to the Xbox controls so I would have difficulty playing it on the PS3. Lol. Glad you liked my chapter. :)

**Jayna Prime: **Lol. I am glad you liked it so much sis. :)

**Mercedes Wolfcry: **Thanks! :)

**LunarShadowAngel: **Glad you liked it so much! :D I'll do my best on updating.

**mchap1154: **Not the twins, just Sides'. If you notice, Sunny is like reprimanding Sides': *sides says something* *sunny whacks him* Lol. Glad you look forward to it. :)

**Luna Prime- Awesomeness: **Lol. Glad you liked it. :)

**TransFanFreak101: **:D

**KayleeChiara: **Glad you liked it. :) You'll see. ^.^

**Autobot StarRacer: **Yes, leave it to Sides'. *rolls eyes* Lol. Glad you like it so much.

**The Unkown Shadows: **I am glad you like it so much. :D

**FoxyAlterEgos: **Lol. Yup. I know waiting sucks. Glad you liked the chapter. :)

**Princess Thil Galel: **We all loves the fluff it seems. XD Glad you liked it. :)

**Autobot Shadowstalker: **Thanks!

**Aurrawings: **Thanks! :D

**Cutie Kyuubi: **Starscream is an idiot. He never had feelings for her, he was just being his turncoat self. As for her "brother", he was never seen since chapter 1. The other guy was someone completely different. Glad you enjoyed my story enough to read this far. :)

**Kiki56:** Thanks! Though….it has been a year now since then so yeah…I am fully recovered, just still paying the insurance company off.

And now, on with the chapter!

**Chapter 33: Not All About Fighting**

It has been three weeks since Hound's and Warpath's arrival, about the same amount of time since Ratchet and I began our relationship. I had learned a few things about my fellow Autobots during that time period.

The first thing I learned was that Warpath had a very…explosive personality. He was loud and obnoxious, especially loud. I had thought Sideswipe could be loud, but Warpath was loud times ten. He also seemed to like the word "kablam" a lot, as nearly every mission I went on with him he said it at least twenty times. He tended to drive the older 'bots, and some of the younger ones, nuts with his over zealousness. Ironhide nearly constantly told him he needed to tone it down a notch. I caught Sunstreaker face-palming on numerous occasions. Prowl was developing a twitch in his left door wing whenever Warpath was near and Bluestreak would subtly move a bit behind the closest 'bot. Everyone else seemed to bear with it on a just barely basis.

Hound was a much calmer mech than the mech he arrived with. In fact, he was so much calmer, I found it quite ironic that the pair had ended up traveling together after finding themselves on the same planet. Hound had as much patience as Jazz did it seems, as neither ever even batted an optic whenever Warpath was being loud and obnoxious. In fact the only time I saw Hound upset was when the twins painted him to look like some kind of hippy robot. The mech loved everything about Earth, from nature to human made stuff. He found everything interesting and valued the life on this planet so much that he would stop driving down the road and wait for the slowest animal to cross before moving again. At least he wasn't as extreme as Bluestreak, who would use his holoform to help a turtle across the street, on that.

The last I had learned that when it came to admitting feelings, Flareup was as stubborn as I was. Despite our parting promise from the wash racks on my birthday, and subsequently when Ratchet and I first had that talk, she has yet to inform Bumblebee of how she feels. Neither the demolitions expert nor the scout seemed to feel confident enough to tell the other how they felt. Between trying to convince the boss bot and femme commander to talk to each other and the same with those two, I felt like a regular conspirator. I was even starting to discuss plans with Jazz to get them together.

"I'm just saying, they need to allow themselves to be happy," I said, swirling my cube of Energon as I waited for my cards for the game of Black Jack I was playing with Jazz, Ironhide, Chromia and Hound.

Ever since Jazz had discovered the game the five of us would play it on Friday nights. Bluestreak had joined us once, but the game hadn't really held his interest. I just played cause it gave me time with some of my friends. Saturday nights were turning into movie night with the twins, Bumblebee, Bluestreak and Mirage. Sunday was a day in the simulator with Arcee, her sisters and Flareup. I was still looking for things to do with the others. Of course, this was only when the days weren't filled with Decepticon bashing. In fact, our game was actually being held late due to the Decepticons attacking when we were going to start it the previous day.

The past three weeks left little room for finding activities to do with my fellow Autobots. If it wasn't a skirmish over an Energon deposit, it was tracking a stray Cybertronian signal that more often than not turned out to be a long forgotten beacon from an empty container. Whatever was in those empty containers was anybody's guess as they were held in neither 'Con nor 'Bot servos. A couple times it turned out to be an arriving Decepticon, including one named Barricade. The other Decepticons who showed up weren't really well-known.

"Ah agree," Jazz said, finishing dealing out the cards and bringing me back out of my thoughts. "But ya know, it wasn' dat long ago ya were da same way."

"I know," I said, picking up my cards, but not looking at them yet. "But I was as oblivious as they come. They know their own feelings. They just need a push in the right direction."

I then narrowed my optics at my three cards. I had a jack, a two and an eight. That meant I had a total of twenty, one away from twenty-one. I could risk trying for an ace and go over if I so much as get a two, or go with the really good hand I was dealt.

"Ya mean like you and Ratch' did," Ironhide said gruffly as he looked at his own cards. "Did ya have anything in mind?"

"I am absolutely clueless," I said with a sigh. "If Christmas were coming up, I'd suggest mistletoe, but Christmas just passed a couple months ago."

Jazz snapped his fingers as he looked at his cards. Of course, it was easy to know it had nothing to do with whatever cards he got. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he got a similar hand to my own. "Dats wat Ah shoulda done," he said. "Then ya wouldn' have waited so long."

I gave Jazz a dry look. "If I find mistletoe hanging around med bay, I'm giving the twins a prank idea for you," I said.

Jazz laughed as the others chuckled. They knew I was joking, but sometimes I was tempted to actually pull a prank on somebot. I just didn't have it in me to actually do it. I did occasionally threaten to give an idea to the twins though and I could come up with some pretty good stuff. Of course, everyone knew by now that it was all empty threats and I wasn't really mad if that was what I was using.

Jazz grinned as he placed three coins from his pile of sixteen into the middle. "Ah, think we should get them in a room alone together," he said as he leaned back, keeping his cards well out of sight. He had apparently chosen to stay.

I raised an optic ridge at the saboteur as Hound put a matching bet on the table and asked for another card by tapping his fingers on the table. Jazz usually started off our games with two, but this time he went three. Either he was trying to throw us off or he was confident he would win. As Chromia placed her bet and stayed, and Ironhide folded, probably having got a really bad hand for this game, I decided it was best not to think on it. I looked briefly at my cards, then at Jazz, who was watching me with a grin as he always did when we played. I then placed four coins in the middle and waved my hand in the motion to stay.

"Ya know, yer poker face is terrible," Jazz said, as he always did when we played.

"I'm aware," I said calmly. "Probably why I should be thankful we don't bet with real money."

Chromia chuckled. "You seem pretty confident about your cards though," she said, indicating my pile of four among the piles of three.

I remained silent and sat back in my seat as Jazz reached for his coin pile. He placed four in to match mine. Hound folded this round, saying the last card he got ruined his hand. Chromia bet four and stayed again and I did the same. Now that we had all gone twice it was time to show our cards. Chromia showed hers, revealing a queen, a five and a four, giving her a total of nineteen. I didn't blame her for not wanting to go any higher. I showed my twenty and Chromia sighed. We then turned to Jazz, who grinned and laid down three aces.

I gave him a disbelieving look. "Really?" I asked. "You stayed both rounds, bet more than usual to begin with, for a total of three?"

Jazz grinned. "Ah wanted to see if any of ya'll would call meh bluff," he said.

"And here I was expecting you to have at least what I had," I said, shaking my helm.

"I have to hand it to you, Jazz," Chromia said as I gathered the chips I had won. "You have a damn good poker face."

"Well he is a saboteur and intelligence officer," I noted. "I believe it comes with the job description." I placed my winnings in my allotted coin area.

Ironhide chuckled. "So does your lack of a poker face come with your job description?" he asks, grinning.

"If so, Optimus should get rid of his poker face," I replied after a moment as I pushed my cards toward Jazz, who was the best at shuffling cards. "My lack of a poker face is just because it's me. I suck at disguising my emotions."

"Ya know, we could lock 'em in a room together," Jazz suggested as he shuffled the cards.

"Who?" I asked, knowing what he was talking about, but unsure which pair he was referring to.

"'Bee and Flare'," Jazz clarified. "Ah don' think it would work with OP and 'Lita."

"No, it probably wouldn't," I agreed. "I think OP just needs to be pestered. I'm half tempted to just start poking him until he tells her."

Ironhide chuckled. "Doubt that would work," he said. "Bot's got more patience than he knows what to do with."

"I think you guys should just stay out of their love lives," Hound said. "They'll work it out."

Ironhide laughed. "Ya must be joking," Ironhide said. "Every mech needs a push in the right direction. Ah even had to have one."

Hound didn't look convinced. "The way you two act, I doubt you needed much convincing," he replied.

"Hound, OP and Elita have liked each other since before da war," Jazz said. "Ya tellin' me, ya not even a tad bit interested in kickin' their afts in gear?"

Hound looked momentarily surprised before shaking his helm. "Alright, ya got a point," he said. "But I honestly don't know how you expect to pull it off."

"First we need a plan to pull off," I said as Jazz began dealing the cards for our second round.

We discussed possible ideas to get OP and Elita to talk about their feelings with input from everybot at the table, even Hound despite his initial indifference, while we played. Despite my rather lucky win in the first game, I lost both of the games we played after and was left with one chip, my winnings going to Jazz one round and Hound the next. I just shrugged it off, seeing as how I had won once, which was more than I could say about the last two weeks we had played. As we were cleaning up, the rec room doors opened and the twins came in, Sideswipe wearing a huge grin on his faceplates. Sunstreaker just looked moody, as always.

"Hey guys! Miko wants us all to go to snow with her!" Sideswipe said. "It sounds fun!"

"Where are we going for snow?" I asked, putting a pede on the edge of the table and leaning my chair back some as I looked at the red and yellow twins.

"Some remote place in Alaska," Sunstreaker supplied. "Away from prying eyes so we can use our true forms."

"Wouldn't we attract Decepticon attention?" I asked, frowning.

"Ah, they're still licking their wounds from that aft kicking we gave them yesterday," Sideswipe waved off my concern. He gave me a pleading look.

"It does sound fun," Jazz said.

"Please?" Sideswipe asked, sounding like a kid pleading for a much wanted toy.

"Have you asked Optimus?" I asked.

"He said it is fine as long as you go with us to keep us out of trouble," Sunstreaker answered.

Inwardly, I cringed at that. I wasn't sure what Optimus was thinking if he thought I could keep the twins out of trouble. Perhaps he wanted to give me a sense of responsibility, more so than I already had, or perhaps it was some idea that it might give me a confidence boost. It was no secret that I was not very confident in my abilities to be a leader. Even after successfully leading a couple battles I still didn't see good coming of it in the long run.

"Alright," I said. "We could use fresh air without having to fight the Decepticons anyway."

"Sounds good to me," Jazz said. "Ah'll tag along to make sure ya don' get in trouble yourself."

"Hey!" I said indignantly.

Ironhide chuckled. "Well ya have been a trouble magnet since you got here," he said.

"You guys are mean," I mock-pouted.

"Don't worry, Shade', I'll come and make sure the boys don't pick on you too much," Chromia said, grinning at the face Ironhide made at that. It was somewhere between a pout and pleading.

I couldn't help but chuckle. "No offense, 'Hide, but I can't take you seriously when you make that face," I said, greatly amused.

Chromia laughed as Ironhide sighed. "Good one, Shade'," she said.

"Femmes," Ironhide grunted before standing up and walking by me, patting my helm as he went by.

"I'll tag along as well," Hound said. "I'd like to see more of this planet."

With it settled that all of us were going, we left the rec room and headed to the Ops Center. Once in the Ops Center, I noticed some of the others seemed like they were just waiting. Flareup, Arcee, Elita and Bulkhead were all milled nearby the Ground Bridge. Bumblebee and Bluestreak were next to Jack and Raf, who were dressed for snow and discussing what they could do in the snow while playing with their ear muffs. Miko was also dressed for snow, ear muffs hung around her neck instead of being played with and was in a debate with Ratchet over whether or not he should accompany us.

"Come on, doc bot!" Miko was saying. "Shadebreaker will be going." She said with a teasing tone. "Don't you want to spend time with her?"

"Ratchet doesn't have to go if he doesn't want to, Miko," I said, walking up to stand next to Ratchet.

"Thank you," Ratchet said, sighing a bit.

"Though it wouldn't hurt him to," I said, raising an optic ridge.

Ratchet gave me a slight glare, but I could tell he wasn't really mad at me for saying that.

"Well it wouldn't," I said. "You work too much."

"Someone has to keep the base running," Ratchet said and I noticed Miko start walking away to join the others.

"First Aid could handle things here," I said. "But you really don't have to come. I think a little fun would be good for you, but I'm sure other opportunities will come up." I ended with a smile.

Ratchet sighed, shaking his helm before pulling me into a hug. "You're lucky I love you too much to hit you with a wrench," he said quietly. "Be safe out there." He finished as he released me.

"I just worry you might over-work yourself, Ratch'," I said. "And I will be extra careful." I smiled before heading over to join the others as Ratchet went to activate the Ground Bridge for us.

Ten minutes later the sixteen of us were through the Ground Bridge and in the middle of a very snowy plain of Alaska. Raf already had Bumblebee helping him build his first snowman. Jack and Arcee were having a snow fort building contest with Miko and Bulkhead, though neither team was getting very far yet, as it was just started and the process had to explained and worked through. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were making their own snowman.

"Come on Sunny, it doesn't have to be perfect," Sideswipe said. "It just has to be cool, which it is because it's frozen!"

Sunstreaker grunted at his twin's poor joke. "I wouldn't expect you to understand art," he said irritably.

I shook my helm at their arguing before turning my attention to the others. Hound was taking notes on some elk nearby. I was surprised the elk was so close to where we had settled down for our play time. The plain was more like a really large clearing, with trees surrounding it on three sides and a steep inclined on the fourth side, which was currently behind me. Ironhide and Chromia were, unsurprisingly, having a small snow fight that I could tell wasn't a real fight as it seemed more like they were teasing each other. I didn't focus on them for long. Flareup was making a pile of snow, possibly as her own fort. Elita was standing next to me, surveying the activity as well.

"So Elita, why didn't Optimus come?" I asked casually as I watched Jazz and Bluestreak sneak up on Hound and dump some snow on him.

"He's not had fun since he got his memories back," she replied. "Plus he says he wants to figure out what the 'Cons might know from the database."

I sighed. "Always working," I said. "We gotta get our mechs away from work somehow."

Even I couldn't miss Elita's cooling fans kick on. "Optimus isn't my mech," she protests quietly.

"Yet," I said, a hint of teasing in my tone as I grinned. As we spoke I watched as Hound started throwing snowballs at Jazz and Bluestreak. One snowball hit Bulkhead, which caused Miko to call a snowball fight.

"Ok, Shade', spill it," Elita said. "What do you know that I don't?"

I glanced at her. "You know that transmission Chromia sent out when you guys were in trouble?" I asked.

Elita nodded, looking at me in confusion.

"He wanted to go with the rescue team, because he was worried about you, as in you specifically," I said. "He told me you are very special to him. He just isn't convinced you feel the same way and that he can happy that way."

Elita looked at me in shock. "Did you just say what I think you did?" she asks, her shock evident in her voice.

"Hey, someone has to get the ball rollin'," I said, shrugging. I bent down and scooped up some snow. "You two avoid the issue too much."

Before Elita could respond, I left her side and lifted the snow in my hands before tossing it at Ironhide.

"Hey! Come join the fun!" I called before dodging return fire and laughing.

I got hit in the helm by a snowball and turned to see Jazz tossing a snowball in his hand and grinning. I grinned as well and picked up some snow and tossing it at him as I got hit in the door wing by more snow. I blindly threw some snow in the direction the second snowball had come from.

"Omf!" a human girl voice said.

"Miko!" Bulkhead exclaimed while Jack and Raf laughed at their fellow human's misfortune.

I stifled my own laugh before getting an odd feeling and looking up. I barely had time to utter an "aw scrap" before a whole lot of snow came falling down on me. As a result, I was buried in the snow and when I poked my helm out I saw heard a laughing Ironhide.

"That's what ya get for throwing a snowball at me! Omph! Hey!"

I heard shuffling as Ironhide gathered snow and went after whoever hit him that time. I stood back to my pedes and brushed off some snow, feeling some of it getting into my inner workings as it melted from my body heat. I shuddered a bit at the cold, but paid it no mind as it wouldn't hurt me as long as I remembered to take a nice hot shower when I got back to base. I gathered more snow and rejoined the snowball fight, throwing snowballs at the bots around me and dropping a bit on the humans from time to time.

"Cannon ball!" I heard Sideswipe call out after we had been fighting for around half an hour.

I turned just in time to see a very large snowball flying at me before it slammed into me, knocking me off my pedes and onto my back. I highly doubt it was Sideswipe's intention to send me sliding down the steep incline, but that's what happened as I happened to fall onto the incline. I grabbed at the ground with both hands, trying to create friction to slow my descent. At first, it did nothing to slow me down, but as snow accumulated into a pile below me and where my hands were dragging, I slowly started coming to a stop. Unfortunately that stop didn't come soon enough to avoid my slide onto a frozen lake.

"Ugh, twins," I grumbled as I looked up, seeing the twins, Jazz and Ironhide traversing the incline to come check on me.

"Shade! Ya a'right down there?" Jazz called.

I held up a thumbs down before realizing that was the wrong sign and flipped it to be a thumbs up. "I'm ok!" I called back before sitting up and rubbing my shoulder. That had not been nice to my door wing connections.

I started to stand, but I wasn't used to walking on ice so my pedes slipped out from under me and I fell back onto my aft, breaking the ice underneath and covering me in the freezing cold water. I instantly started shivering, even as the twins reached me and pulled me out onto the snow covered bank.

"T-that's c-c-cold," I stuttered through my chattering teeth.

"I'm so sorry!" Sideswipe exclaimed. "I didn't mean for that to happen!"

"I-i-it's-s f-fine," I said. "I-I think I n-need w-warmth, though."

"Let's get you back to base," Ironhide said.

The five of us started back up the hill, Ironhide and Sideswipe making sure I didn't fall back down while Sunstreaker took the lead and Jazz walked behind us. We made it to the top and I saw that only Bulkhead, Miko, Bumblebee and Flareup were still playing. The others were watching in concern as I trudged back up to join them. I was about to open my mouth to ask what they were all staring at when I got a comm call from base.

"**Ratchet to Shadebreaker, I'm picking up some Decepticon signals headed toward your area, you might want to return to base," **Ratchet's voice came over my internals.

"**Hear you, Ratch', we were about to head back anyway. I kinda fell into a frozen lake," **I replied.

I heard a sigh on the other end. **"Femme," **he said, not needing to say anything else for a reprimand.

"**It's not my fault! It was Sides!" **I replied honestly.

Ratchet grumbled. **"Sending a Bridge," **he said.

I returned to the real world to hear Jazz telling everybot that we were headed back to base. Bluestreak and Hound both gave disappointed "aww"s at the same time Miko and Raf did. I would've felt bad, but with the Decepticons headed this way I had a hard time doing so and being freezing kind of took away the motivation to try to do so.

It was moments after everyone accepted that we were leaving that the Ground Bridge opened and Ironhide, Jazz and I made sure everyone was through before the three of us followed. I shivered as I felt the cold water still dripping through my frame. It didn't help that my shivering made the water get into all kinds of places. As soon as I made it to base, I headed straight for the elevator to go down to the wash racks.

"Shade'," Ratchet said, following me out of the ops center. I felt the tingle of a scan and sighed. "What happened?"

"We were having a snowball fight and I ended up sliding down a hill," I explained. "Came to a stop on a frozen lake, tried to stand, slipped, fell, ice broke and I got covered in freezing water before the twins pulled me out." I shuddered a bit.

"Hmm, well, luckily nothing has frozen and now that you are in the warmth of the base nothing should," he said. "A hot shower should be all you need." He said as we came to a stop in front of the elevator.

"Way ahead of ya there, Ratch'," I said, smiling a little. "You know, you should join us for movie-night tonight."

"And deal with the twins?" Ratchet asked, raising an optic ridge. He sighed a bit. "I will come to spend time with you, but if those twins…"

"Easy Ratchet," I said, chuckling a bit. "The twins are usually behaved during movie night. They're usually too captivated by whatever movie is being watched to act up."

Ratchet sighs. "They better be," he grumbles.

"Don't worry, Ratch'," I said, patting his shoulder. "Now if you excuse me, I am still cold. I'm going to take that shower."

"Alright," he said, nodding. "I'll let you do that."

I smiled and then walked into the elevator and pressed the down button. I waved bye to Ratchet as the door shut. I whistled some as I waited for the elevator to reach the lower floor. Once I reached the level, I headed straight for femme wash racks.

It took me about an hour to finish in the wash racks and then I went straight up to the med bay, since there was still another half hour before movie night. I found Ratchet and First Aid both in there and they were deep in a discussion, neither even noticing my entrance. I purposely ignored what they were saying to avoid eavesdropping as I sat on a berth and waited for them to be done. As I did, I thought about what I could possibly do for Ratchet on his creation day. It was still sometime away as I had gotten from Jazz that his creation day was in November, but that didn't mean I couldn't think about it.

"Shade'?" Ratchet asked, bringing me from my thoughts, apparently being done with his conversation with First Aid. "How are you feeling?"

"Lots better," I said, grinning.

"Good," he said, though I felt a tingle of a scan and I raised my optic ridge.

"Ratchet, I'm really feeling better, you don't have to scan me," I said.

"Just making sure," Ratchet said. "You have a habit of not telling me everything."

"When have I done that since the glitch incident?" I asked seriously.

"Hmm, point," he said. "But you can't blame me for worrying."

"No, I suppose not," I said. "I guess Ironhide's right about me being a trouble magnet." I rubbed my helm sheepishly.

Ratchet huffed a little. "If the 'Cons know what's good for them they will stay away from you from now on!" he growled.

I chuckled a little. "Relax Ratchet," I said. "I am getting better at defending myself and I rarely go on missions alone, so yeah." I smiled at him.

He smiled back, though I could tell he was still worried. I couldn't say I blamed him. I sighed and reached my arms out, indicating I wanted to hug him. He took a step forward and wrapped his arms around me as I wrapped mine around him.

"You're not going to lose me, Ratchet," I whispered. "I wouldn't leave you so soon."

He held me tighter. "You better not," he said before backing up a bit and looking at me.

I smiled at him and then leaned in and rested my forehelm against his. "I love you, Ratchet," I said.

"I love you too, Shade'," he said quietly before moving his helm forward and kissing me.

I kissed him back, feeling a tug in my spark as I did so, but ignoring it. I wasn't sure what was up with it, but ever since Ratchet and I admitted our feelings, I would feel a tugging sensation in my spark whenever we hugged, kissed or just remained in the same vicinity of each other for lengthy periods of time. It didn't happen every time we hugged and it took a whole day of being together for it to happen just being in each other's company, but it did happen every time we kissed. It felt almost like it was reaching for something, but I was not sure what and I wasn't about to ask. I was kind of afraid to ask about it, lest maybe he get scared and run away. My logical self said that was illogical, but I didn't always listen to logic very well.

"Hey, Shade'! Time for…" the person trailed off as we stopped kissing and looked at them.

Standing in the doorway were Bumblebee and Bluestreak. Bumblebee was covering his optics, though he was peeking out between his fingers. Bluestreak…well his expression had me uncontrollably laughing. Bluestreak's jaw was dropped as far as physically possible, he had his optics firmly covered as his door wings moved constantly and so fast that it was hard to read what he felt from them.

Bumblebee beeped. "Well, that was unexpected" as he dropped his hand from his optics. The he nudged Bluestreak as I laughed harder, causing Ratchet to look at me in concern.

I took a deep breath to calm myself and looked at Bluestreak, who had closed his mouth, but was still covering his optics. "It's ok, Blue', you can look now," I said, amusement clear in my voice. "Your face is priceless though."

Bluestreak slowly peeked out and when he saw we were indeed not kissing anymore he lowered his hand. "I was gonna say it's time for movie night, but if you are busy that is ok," he said, back to typical Bluestreak speak. "I mean I didn't mean to interrupt you two, um, yeah….Not that I thought you two were doing anything, I suppose if you were you would've locked the door, and you aren't bonded yet, so…"

"BLUESTREAK!" I yelled and he immediately shut up. I sighed, rubbing where my nose bridge would be if I were human. "We weren't doing anything besides kissing. And I am coming to movie night. I believe I talked Ratchet into coming as well."

"Oh, well that's great," he said. "I mean, the more the merrier and the doc does need to get out of the med bay more, no offense Ratchet, I think it's great how dedicated to your work you are, but you really need to learn how to have some fun, laughter is good for your spark and I'd hate to see our best medic crash from over-working, I mean you're the best medic I've ever met, I don't think we could keep going without you and it's no wonder you never found a femme sooner, not getting out much to meet any…"

"We get it, Bluestreak!" Ratchet snapped. He looked at me with a look that just screamed 'How'd I let you pull me into this?'.

I just shrugged. "Blue' will be Blue'," I stated. "Now let's go watch a movie!"

Bumblebee cheered as Bluestreak nodded vigorously and the two mechs left med bay to head for the rec room. Ratchet and I followed shortly after, Ratchet grumbling about how the twins were probably going to be irritating and me just letting him vent. I did hold his hand in a reassuring grip as we walked, though, and if he had any complaints about it, he made no indication.

As we walked I noticed Optimus and Elita in a far corner of the Ops Center deep in a conversation and I couldn't help but smile at the way they both seemed awkward.

_About time, _I thought to myself.

We continued to the rec room and found that the twins were impatiently waiting for us. Mirage was waiting more patiently on the couch, pile of movies we were to watch sitting next to him.

"What took you so long?" Sideswipe whined.

"Yeah, we were about to start without you," Sunstreaker said, glaring off to the side.

"Oh blah," I said. "Learn some patience you two."

"But waiting kills me!" Sideswipe said dramatically. 

"You realize the more you complain about them just now getting here, the longer you're waiting to watch a movie," Mirage pointed out from where he sat on the couch.

"You're right!" Sideswipe said and rushed to his spot on the floor in front of the large tv. "Come on! Start the movie!"

Ratchet grumbled as Sunstreaker joined his twin on the floor and I chuckled. Bumblebee and Bluestreak pulled out a couple very large bean-bag chairs that had been given to us by Fowler and sat them down near the twins. Bluestreak sat in his while Bumblebee laid on is stomach on his. Ratchet and I sat on the couch and I cuddled up to him as Mirage started the movie with a short baffled glance at us as Ratchet placed an arm around me.

I couldn't help, but snicker a bit at how he got so confused by us when we showed affection around him or Ironhide and Chromia do the same. I found it humorous that he seemed to have no clue about it all.

The movie, Iron Man, starting took my attention away from tempting thoughts of making an obvious show of cuddling more against Ratchet.

It started out in a desert with some military vehicles driving through it, some AC DC song playing from a radio. It wasn't until it showed the missile that blew up right by Tony Stark that someone said anything. That was a record for the twins, who felt a need to have a running commentary for the first movie we watch for the night.

"He just got blown up by his own weapon!" Sideswipe said, sitting up straighter.

"Thank-you, Captain Obvious," I said sarcastically from my spot cuddled with Ratchet.

"Welcome, Miss Snarky," Sideswipe rebutted.

"If I had popcorn I'd throw it at you," I stated as we watched the scene where the people were filming something and took a bag off of Tony's head.

Sideswipe was about to say something, but he glanced at Ratchet, turned back around and watched the following scene in silence. I glanced up at Ratchet to see him glaring daggers at Sideswipe and chuckled.

"**Relax, Ratch'," **I told him via the internals. **"It is just a nickname, I don't mind."**

"**If you say so," **he replied with a sigh, though he held me a bit tighter.

I pat his arm and turned my attention back to the movie. It was now at the spot where Tony was waking up after his cellmate finished hooking up the electromagnetic pacemaker to his heart to keep shrapnel out. As we watched the scenes unfold, I watched as Bluestreak and Bumblebee's door wings moved as they watched. The twins were talking to each other in hushed tones every now and then, their optics never leaving the screen. Mirage watched silently with a glance every now and then my and Ratchet's way.

"If you keep glancing at us, Mirage, then you're gonna miss parts of the movie," I told him when he glanced our way while Tony was setting fire to all his weapons that were in enemy hands. I never took my optics from the tv, but saw him out of the corner of my optic.

Mirage jumped a bit and mumbled before focusing solely on the movie.

"I think 'Rage is just jealous," Sideswipe said, not looking away from the movie.

"I am not jealous," Mirage replied. "I just do not understand public displays of affection."

"You just need a femme, then you will understand," I said, poking him with my foot.

"If we make you uncomfortable, we will stop cuddling," Ratchet said.

"Thank-you," Mirage said.

I sighed as the twins looked at us oddly when I shifted so I was leaning against the back of the couch instead of against Ratchet and he removed his arm. Over the past few weeks they had gotten used to seeing us show affection in some, if small, way while we were together and off duty. I guess seeing us willingly stop cuddling when we had clearly been so comfortable threw them for a loop. I held back a laugh as their attention went from us to Mirage and back again a few times.

"If you keep looking at us, you're gonna miss Tony's return to his company," I told them, amusement in my voice.

Their helms turned back to the tv so fast I was amazed they didn't hurt themselves. I shook my helm at them and then continued watching the movie.

"_I've been in captivity for three months, there are two things I want to do," Tony was saying to Pepper. "I want an American cheeseburger. And the other…"_

"_That'll do.." Pepper cut him off._

"_No, it's not what you think," Tony said. "I want you to call for a press conference."_

I chuckled a bit and had to stifle a laugh when he said he wanted the cheeseburger first. The twins were laughing at the group of people's faces when Tony suggested they all sit down as he took a cheeseburger out and started eating it. Even Ratchet found it funny that they were all so confused to how he was conducting the conference.

The remainder of the movie went by mostly quietly. The twins, and occasionally Bluestreak, would make a comment on something or another and the rest of us would agree or disagree with their assessment of the scene. One thing we all agreed on was that Obadiah Stane guy needed to get his aft kicked. We also all agreed that Tony's Ironman suit was awesome, or at least an amazing feat for a human. Even the twins were quiet during the fight scene between Ironman and Obadiah, with only a laugh at the scene when Obadiah pulled them both into the upper atmosphere.

"_You had a great idea, Tony, but my suit is more advanced in every way!" Stane claimed._

_"How'd you solve the icing problem?" Ironman asked._

_"Icing problem?" Stane asked as his suite began to fail._

_"Might want to look into it." Ironman said before banging his fist on the frozen helm as the suite fails and Stane went plummeting toward the ground._

The twins burst into laughter when Obadiah went falling back to the Earth. They then fell silent for the rest of the battle before cheering with Bluestreak and Bumblebee when Obadiah was defeated.

"That. Was. AWESOME!" Sideswipe cheered. "Let's watch it again!"

Sunstreaker whacked his twin. "If we do that we won't get to watch all of the other movies," he said.

"Awww," Sideswipe whined as Bumblebee changed the movies.

I laughed at them as the rest of us simply waited for the next movie to start. Before it started, Sideswipe left briefly before coming back with some Energon for us all. The whole, me and Ratchet not cuddling thing didn't survive past then as I ended up cuddling against him again and Mirage simply made it a point to ignore us, causing m to chuckle.

The night, needless to say, was a fun one, which I think we all appreciated.


	34. The Rescue Bots

**A/N: **I am so very very sorry for taking so freaking long with this update. My muse wasn't cooperating with me. My internet was down for a few days so I would've been able to write with no distractions then, except for the fact that I was busy moving into a bigger apartment. I now have my own room and a bed that is so comfortable! I love it. I have also been distracted by Mass Effect as I got the trilogy a few weeks ago. I am so close to finishing it, but I wanted to get some writing done today before work so I sat down and forced myself to write. And as a result of forcing myself to ignore distractions and write, I am done with this chapter. :D

Another reason I took so long is that my perfectionist side has been giving me a lot of crap lately. But I think Sci effectively got my perfectionist side to shut up, at least for a while. So hopefully it will not take me as long to get an update for my other stories.

Again, I am terribly sorry about the wait. I am not going to be doing author replies in chapters anymore, btw. It takes times and sometimes it doesn't work out the way we all would like it to when I do that. So from now on, if I can reply via PM, I am going to do so when the review is given as soon as I get to it.

I hope you enjoy this chapter. It's kind of a filler, but I hope you enjoy it enough to forgive me taking so long.

**Chapter 34: The Rescue Bots**

"What are they doing in a desert?" Sideswipe asked. "Who are these guys?"

"Didn't you pay attention the first time?" Miko asked. She pointed at the TV where a group of seven humans, and a talking reindeer were walking through a desert. "The Straw Hats are taking Princess Vivi home so she can save her homeland from the evil Crocodile!"

"What straw hats?" Sideswipe asked.

"Aren't crocodiles reptiles? How can an animal be evil? And why would they need the princess? Shouldn't the royal guard take care of it? But then, I don't really know that much about human customs…" Bluestreak would've continued on if I hadn't interrupted as Miko paused the movie.

"She doesn't mean the reptile," I said, knowing the show as Miko had introduced me to it some time ago. "The bad guy is named that. She called them the 'Straw Hats' because that is the name of their crew. You see the guy with the scar who is wearing a straw hat? He is Luffy, he is the captain, or the leader of the band. The guy with three swords strapped to his side is Zoro, his first mate, or second-in-command. The others don't officially have ranks. The red headed femme is Nami, the Navigator. The long-nosed guy is Usopp, the sharpshooter. The blonde guy is Sanji, the cook. The last guy is Ace, he's Luffy's brother, but isn't part of the Straw Hats. The reindeer is Chopper, he's the Straw Hat's medic. The blue haired femme is Vivi, the Princess."

"So you were paying attention when I introduced this show to you," Miko said.

"Just because I was focused on something else didn't mean I didn't hear ya," I said, grinning.

The movie was put back on play and we watched as the screen gave a close up of Luffy as his tongue hung out comically as he sweat. He complained about water, or rather, the lack thereof and his need for it.

"Where's the action we saw earlier in the movie?" Sideswipe whined.

"Do you not care about the story?" Miko asked in an exasperated voice.

Sideswipe grumbled as she glared.

I shook my helm at them as I watched the movie. At some point, the one called Luffy drank some juice from a cactus and started hallucinating. I found it funny, but thought to myself to remember never to let the kids drink cactus juice. Throughout the movie the twins continued asking questions and it almost drove Jack crazy how many Miko had to pause so she could explain without anyone missing anything. Overall, the movie session lasted about an hour beyond what it would've lasted otherwise.

After the movie was over, I said good bye to the Rec Room and the occupants for now and headed for the med bay. I wanted to spend some time with my courted and that was where he currently was, as it was where he was a good majority of the time. As I headed there, I thought about what I was going to do for his birthday. It was coming up soon and I still had nothing to give him and that was unacceptable. After what happened on my birthday there was no way in the universe I was going to neglect doing something for him.

I mean, I couldn't do nothing after Ratchet went through the trouble of fixing up my room. The insignia painted on my wall was so perfectly painted it was clear he took time to make it look good even though he wasn't a natural painter like Sunstreaker. Or maybe he had even put up with the moody twin just so it wouldn't look bad. And the bookshelf that was home to several datapads now was clearly constructed on the spot. I could tell that from taking a closer look the next morning — the wields were painted over in a purple that matched my paint, but it was easy to tell they were fairly new. The shelf was probably the easiest thing to put in, that or the board which neatly displayed my notes and quotes. Upon further inspection one of my quotes had stood out, centered on the board as if to make a point.

Love is one of the most fundamental elements of our lives, without it all things would fall.

It made sense that he had placed that one dead center now that I thought about it. He had done so much because he was building up to his confession and he wanted me to know he meant it. I wasn't sure where it had come from anymore, but it was something I had found somewhere. It had actually had the term "human" in it, but I had figured it applied to us Cybertronians as well so I removed it. But when I realized he had strategically placed it in the spot where the most important thing would go in a display, I realized that he wasn't just saying it.

It was shortly after that that my spark started doing that weird tugging sensation started up in my spark. It literally felt as if it was reaching for him, but I wasn't entirely sure why. I mean, I had gotten the Talk back when I first became Cybertronian, but it wasn't really something I put much thought into and thus couldn't remember if there was anything about a tugging sensation. Besides, it was too early for that kind of stuff…wasn't it?

"Umph," I grunted, running into someone because I was too deeply in thought that I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. I stumbled back a bit, but felt hands gently grab my arms to steady me.

"Easy Shade'," Ratchet's voice met my audios and I opened my optics that I hadn't realized were closed to see him looking at me in concern.

"Sorry," I apologized. "I wasn't looking where I was going."

"I can see that," Ratchet said, pulling me close, into a hug. "What had you so deep in thought?"

I rested my helm on his chest, noting the fact we were just outside of medbay. "Nothing to worry about," I said softly.

"Nothing to worry about?" Ratchet asked and pulled back. "Shade' don't lie to me. You don't make a habit of walking into bot because you don't see them. What is wrong?"

I forcibly ignored the warmness that spread through my spark at his concern as I answered. "I was just thinking," I said. "About how much I love you and how I want to do something for your spark day, which I hear is coming up in a month or so."

Ratchet's expression softened and his optics filled with love as he looked at me. He leaned down and placed his forehelm on mine. "You don't have to do anything, my love," he whispered.

"I want to," I whispered back, grinning slightly.

"What is it you want to do?" he asked.

"That's a surprise," I said and in an effort to avoid questions, and because the urge was starting to become hard to ignore with our faces so close anyways, I leaned my helm forward and kissed him.

Ratchet made a pleased noise and kissed me back, wrapping an arm around my waist as he placed a hand on the back of my neck. He deepened the kiss a little bit and I felt that tugging sensation in my spark as I unconsciously started purring. After a moment, he pulled back and looked at me with love.

"What were we talking about?" he asked.

I knew it would completely ruin the moment and I honestly tried to hold it in, but his question sent me into a laughing fit I wasn't sure how to stop. Ratchet looked shocked and unsure if he should be offended or worried about me. He decided to go with the later if his next words were anything to go by.

"Shade'? Are you alright?" Ratchet asked, reaching out to me as I had moved away in my laughing spell, but looking hesitant.

I took a few deep breaths and eventually got myself to stop laughing. "I'm ok, I'm ok," I breathed and then sighed. "I am sorry. The fact you forgot what we were talking about apparently was rather humorous to my processor."

"Apparently," Ratchet huffed.

"I'm sorry Ratch'," I said, looking at him pitifully.

Ratchet looked at me for a moment before growling and pulling me into a hug. "Why can't I ever be mad at you?" he asked.

"Same reason I can never be mad at you," I said as he rested his helm on top of mine. I rested mine on his chest. "Love leaves no room for anger."

Ratchet hummed, clearly giving me that point. "I love you," he said, holding me close to himself.

"Love you too," I said quietly, sighing in content as he held me. I was still purring, but it was an unconscious thing that I seemed to do when Ratchet and I were having these nice moments together. I didn't know how to stop unless…

"Well ain't that sweet," Ironhide's voice broke us both out of our respective thoughts and Ratchet grumbled slightly as my purring stopped and I pulled back.

"Hey 'Hide! Chromia!" I said cheerfully with a smile.

Ironhide grinned. "Hey Shade'," he said as he and Chromia walked up, his arm around his mate's waist.

"Hello, my friend," Chromia said, smiling. "I see you two are doing well."

I smiled as I heard Ratchet's cooling fans kick on. "Yup!" I said. "So how are you guys?"

"We are good," Chromia said, smiling.

Our conversation was interrupted by the alarm telling us we had an incoming call going off. We all looked at each other brefly before heading toward the Ops Center. When we reached there, Optimus was already at the console. He was just answering the call as we came up.

"This is Optimus Prime, may I ask who is calling?" Optimus asked.

"**Optimus, it's Chief Burns,"** someone replied and an image of man with grey hair and mustache appeared on the monitor.

I blinked. I hadn't known there were any humans who knew of us outside of the ones I had met already. Obviously I didn't know everything, but I was surprised I hadn't even heard a mention before.

"Greetings Chief Burns," Optimus said. "Is something wrong?"

"**Actually, there is,"** Burns replied. **"The bots have been captured by some red eyed menace."**

"Sounds like a Decepticon," I said, doorwings twitching slightly.

Optimus nodded in agreement. "Is your family safe, Chief Burns?" he asked.

"**Cade, Dani and Graham are ok, but Cody was captured along with the bots," **Burns answered, looking extremely worried for this Cody.

"I will send a team to help them," Optimus said. "They will be there within the hour."

"**Thank you Prime," **Burns said, looking and sounding very thankful. **"My family and I will be waiting."**

Optimus nodded his acknowledgement before cutting the communication and turning to us. "Shadebreaker," he said. "I want you to take Ironhide, Prowl and Bumblebee and go help them."

I raised a servo. "I thought everybot on Earth was here," I said tentatively. "I am confused."

"The Rescue Bots are a team of search and rescue bots," Optimus said. "They arrived shortly before the Decepticons became active after a three year period of silence. They are not battle ready, so I assigned them to the rescue team in Griffin Rock. The town is used to advanced technology so it's easy for them to blend in with the help of their human allies."

"Ah," I said, not sure what else to say. "I'll go find Prowl and Bee and then we'll be on our way."

Optimus nodded. "Very well," he said. "Be careful. We do not yet know what we are dealing with."

I nodded. "We will," I said.

"Ya can count on that Optimus," Ironhide said. "I'll go find 'Bee, he's probably in the Rec Room with the twins."

"I'll fetch Prowl then," I replied. "He's probably in his office."

Optimus nodded his acknowledgement before turning back to the computer. Ironhide and Chromia left then, headed for the Rec Room clearly. Meanwhile I headed toward where the offices were located, including Prowl's. Ratchet followed me and held my servo as we walked.

"Be careful," Ratchet told me, as we neared the med bay and stopped me.

I turned to look at him. "I will, Ratchet, I promise," I replied and smiled.

He pulled me into a hug. "I don't want to lose you," he said, holding me tightly.

I gave him a reassuring hug and nuzzled his cheek. "You won't lose me," I told him. "I'll be back."

He sighed and hugged me tighter before letting me go. "I should let you go find Prowl," he said.

"And I should probably go find him," I said, chuckling. I leaned up and kissed his cheek. "I love you, Ratch'."

"I love you too, Shade'," Ratchet said and kissed my forehead.

I smiled and then headed off to find Prowl as Ratchet went into med bay. After we parted it was a quiet walk to the offices. I wasn't sure where everybot was at, but apparently most bots were in other parts of the base or perhaps out on patrol. I didn't wonder about it too long, as I knew they could all take care of themselves and didn't need me to worry just because I didn't run into them. Besides, there was more important things to worry about. Such as what the other team of bots could possibly be going through right now.

My thoughts were cut off by my arrival outside of Prowl's office. I double checked what I knew his usual schedule was and the time it currently was before nodding to myself. He was usually in his office at this time if he wasn't on a mission. After determining that, I knocked a couple times on the door.

"Come in," Prowl's voice came from the other side and the door slid open to reveal a very well organized office, much different from Ratchet's messy one located behind the med bay. It was also sparsely decorated, holding only what was required for the job he performed in it.

"Hey Prowl," I said, waving.

"Hello Shadebreaker," Prowl replied with a small incline of his helm. "Can I help you?" 

"Yeah, you are needed for a mission," I answered. "There're some Autobots in need of rescuing. Optimus wants you, me, Bee and 'Hide to go help them out."

Prowl nodded and stood from his chair. He joined me as I left his office and it wasn't long till he brought up my report from my last mission. "I haven't received your report from your last mission," he noted. "It was due two days ago."

"Due dates are for school," I said. "Relax Prowl, I'll get it to you. I always do, I just take a little longer than everybot else."

"Indeed," Prowl said, raising an optic ridge. "I know you have been working on it, why take so long?"

"Oh no reason," I said innocently. "I just, you know, gotta make some time for myself."

"You'd have more if you got it done right away," Prowl pointed out.

"This is true." I couldn't deny that. "Just don't worry about it. I'll get it to you."

"I am just concerned, because you are usually not late," Prowl said. "Is something going on?"

"A case of laziness," I admitted. "It's been so quiet since that mission. I will get it done though. I just didn't want to do a half aft job on it, it would drive you nuts reading my half aft job."

"I appreciate the concern, but surely it isn't that bad," Prowl replied. "Couldn't be worse than the twins."

I chuckled nervously. "Uh, yeah…" I said. "Anyways, let's go."

I picked up speed a bit and led the way to the Ops Center. When we made it I saw that Ironhide had already returned with Bumblebee. Once we joined up with them, Chromia pulled the lever to the Ground Bridge, powering it up. 

"Tread lightly, Autobots," Optimus warned. "Griffin Rock may be used to advance technology, but in no way are most of its citizens prepared for living machines."

"Understood, Boss Bot," I said. "We'll be careful not to blow our cover."

Optimus nodded and it was only a few minutes later that me and the others were stepping out of the Ground Bridge by what appeared to be a fire house. Standing outside of it, watching us, were four people. One I recognized from the transmission, Chief Burns. There was girl who wore a flight suit with brown hair. The other two were guys. One of them had blonde hair and wore a fireman's suit and the other was dressed in a nice shirt with a loosely tied tie around his neck, had glasses and a green hard hat on as well as a tool belt around his waist.

Bumblebee beeped and whirled as we approached them.

"Good to see you again, Bee," the girl said. "Too bad it isn't under better circumstances."

"You guys know each other?" I asked.

"Bumblebee helped us with a meteorite a way back," Chief Burns said, stepping forward. "I'm Chief Burns and these are my kids…" he indicated the girl first, "Dani," he indicated the blonde next, "Cade," and finally the one with the hard hat, "and Graham."

I nodded. "Nice to meet you all," I said. "I am Shadebreaker, this is Ironhide and Prowl. You already know Bumblebee."

"Good to meet you all," Chief Burns said, nodding. "If it's not too much to ask, I'd like to find the bots and Cody as soon as possible."

"Agreed," Prowl nodded. "Do you have any ideas as to where they are being held?"

"There's been reports of a mysterious barn in the country side that wasn't there before," Graham provided, adjusting his glasses much like Raf does whenever he is talking. "I think it's a safe bet they're there."

"A barn?" I asked. "There's probably more to it. A simple barn wouldn't be enough to hold four Autobots."

"The appearance of the barn is probably a holographic projection covering a ship," Prowl agreed. "It is a stealth tactic used by some bounty hunters. I am surprised whoever it is chose such a remote location, however."

"Perhaps it's bait to keep us from the real location," Ironhide said.

Prowl looked to the humans. "Have there been reports of any other suspicious buildings?"

They all shook their heads.

"Griffin Rock is a small place, Prowl," Chief Burns said. "We would have heard by now if there was another strange building."

"Any idea what we're dealing with here?" I asked. "We don't want to run in there blind if we don't have to."

"I was there when they were taken," Dani replied. "The mech that took them seemed to be a mix of different parts all from different bots. He only had one hand and the other was a hook."

"Lockdown," Prowl nodded, apparently recognizing the description.

Bumblebee beeped curiously.

"Lockdown is a bounty hunter," Prowl explained. "I had a run-in with him before. He takes parts from his victims as trophies and integrates those parts into himself. He claims to be a neutral, but he works like a Decepticon and works with the Decepticons more often than not."

"So he's a cannibal," I said.

Prowl looked at me for a moment. "In a manner of speaking, yes," he said.

Ironhide cracked his knuckles. "Doesn't matter what he is," he said gruffly. "We'll kick his sorry aft all the way back to Cybertron."

"I think I have a plan," Prowl said and looked back to the humans again. "Will you take us to the barn?"

"Of course," Chief Burns said.

Prowl nodded his thanks and then transformed, opening his passenger door as the rest of us followed suit.

Burns turned to his children. "You three should wait here in case anyone calls for an emergency," he said.

"But…" Cade started to protest, but was cut off by a wave of Chief Burns's hand.

"No 'but's," he said. "Stay on the comm. I'll keep you updated." With that he climbed in Prowl.

It didn't take us long to reach the barn. As Burns had said, Griffin Rock was a small island so it didn't take long to travel from one side of the island to the other. The chief led us to where the barn was and preliminary scans proved that it was indeed only a holographic projection. From the size of the projection, it was probably a fairly small ship, capable of being flown by a sole bot, but with enough space to hold probably about fifty bots comfortably. Well, that was the estimate from the preliminary scan anyway. It's possible the estimates were wrong, but Prowl was rarely wrong.

"Anybody got a plan?" I asked. "Prowl? You've dealt with this guy before, got anything?"

"It's hard to sneak by Lockdown, we'll need a team to distract him and a team to infiltrate," Prowl said. "Ironhide and I will provide the distraction. Shadebreaker and Bumblebee, you two are the best suited for infiltration as you're small and know how to keep out of sight."

I nodded. "Sounds like a plan," I said. I turned to Chief Burns. "You should find a safe place to hide until we got your friends out of there."

"I'll be close by," he replied. "Let me know when you find them. My son is in there too."

"Of course," I agreed before turning to the others. "Let's do this."

We split up to do our assigned tasks. Prowl and Ironhide got Lockdown's attention easily enough and it wasn't long before they were in a fight with Lockdown. I didn't spend much time watching them though, as I had my own part to do in this mission. With the bounty hunter occupied, Bumblebee and I were able to sneak in easily enough.

While moving silently through the ship, we came across a lot of what appeared to be messed up versions of amories. Prowl wasn't kidding about Lockdown taking trophies, but it wasn't just any part he took. Every piece of a bot we came across contained a weapon unique from the rest. It was disturbing to say the least. Lockdown was a cannibal in a way from the looks of it.

But at the same time it made me think he wouldn't be so great without his trophies.

His power came from the parts he stole from others. Modifications he makes to himself using those parts. If we took all those modifications away, then would he still be able to fight as well as he does? It was a question worth pondering, and I thought, a question worth finding the answer to.

By the time we found where the Rescue Bot team were bring held, a plan had already formed in my processor to blow up Lockdown's ship — and all his trophies.

I walked up the cell that housed the bots we were here for.

"About time," the red mech said in way of greeting.

"Actually they are here in a logical amount of time," a bot that I swore could've been Prowl's twin said.

"As long as we get out of here, I don't care if they're late, on time or early!" an orange and white mech added in.

"Easy, we're getting you out," I said, looking at the control panel. "Bee, watch my sixth."

Bumblebee nodded, whirling an affirmative as he activated his blasters and took up a defensive behind me as I took the cover off the panel. I scanned the wires and started messing around with them.

Picking locks was a very delicate business and one of the few times you would see me be serious outside of a firefight was while hotwiring a lock. If you crossed the wrong wires, you'd spring a trap, which would then prevent you from opening whatever you were trying to open that way, even if you dodged whatever the trap was. The trap could range from simply locking it down to an explosion to a shock that could do any number of things to you and to a horde of hostiles swarming the room. One wrong move and we could very well be toast.

I focused, disconnecting wires and reconnecting them to bypass the locking mechanism as Bumblebee stood guard.

Luckily Prowl and Ironhide seemed to be doing a good job at keeping Lockdown distracted and if the bounty hunter had any partners or drones, they never realized we were there. I was able to hotwire the locks to unlock the cell in the shortest amount of time possible given my skill level with lock picking.

"Ok, Bee, get these guys out of here, there's something I am going to do," I said.

Bumblebee whirled a question.

I grinned in response. "Let's just say, Lockdown won't have his trophies when I am done," I said. "Now go! Before I blow this place sky high while someone is still in it."

The white and orange mech looked nervous by this.

"Are you sure that's wise?" the blue and white Prowl-like mech asked. "How do you know you'll get out in time?"

"I don't," I said. "But even if I don't, at least it'll buy you some time. Now don't make me say it again, go!" I pointed toward the exit demandingly and watched as the five bots reluctantly left me to my plan after a few attempts to let me have one of them with me.

Once I was sure they were all going, I went the other way, heading toward the engine room. I snuck through the ship, being mindful of places I spotted security setups. There were a few booby traps that I had to carefully work myself around to avoid tripping an alarm, or whatever they would trip.

_If I overload the main reactor, it should blow this thing off the face of the Earth,_ I thought to myself as I found the engine room.

I looked around silently from my current spot just outside the doorway. The main reactor was basically in front of me, but I needed to be sure I could get to it without alerting the currently distracted bounty hunter to my presence in a place where I shouldn't be. Once I was sure, I headed over to it and search for an access panel.

I found the access panel near the floor, opposite side of the reactor than where I entered into the room. It would make it difficult to know if Lockdown had discovered my presence and walked in until it would be either run or face him. Running likely wouldn't work, but I wouldn't do so anyway. This guy needed to be taught a lesson and destroying his precious trophies would do just that. Mess with an Autobot on Earth and you pay the consequences. He would pay for all the ones he messed with off of Earth as well.

I carefully removed the panel and looked at the complicated maze of wires and circuitry. This was going to take a bit of time.

"**Shadebreaker to Prowl, how you guys doing?" **I sent over the comlink.

"**We are holding," **Prowl replied. **"I saw Bumblebee exit with the Rescue Bots, what are you doing in there?"**

"**Preparing a little surprise," **I said. **"Can you two hold his attention for five more minutes?"**

"**We certainly can,"** Ironhide's voice join in the convo.

"**Thank you, Shadebreaker out,"** I replied and went silent. I kept the com channel open to all my teammates, however. If something went wrong for any of them, I wanted and needed to know.

I then focused in on rigging the reactor to explode. Once I set it to overload, I'd have three minutes to get out of explosion range. If I didn't make it out on time, well, then I hoped Ratchet would be able to find happiness with another femme. As much as it hurt to think he might need someone else, I didn't want him to be alone if I passed before him. I wanted him to be happy.

I shook the thoughts from my processor. I didn't need to think about that. There was no indication that I wouldn't return to base perfectly safe from here. There was no need for such morbid thoughts, they would only depress me. Instead, I focused my thoughts on what I was doing.

It took about the time I had requested the distraction for to get the reactor overloading. I contacted Prowl and Ironhide to let them know it was time to make a hasty retreat before transforming and speeding out the nearby airlock. It was a lot easier to use it instead of taking the time to find the entrance again.

I was able to retreat without being caught by Lockdown, if only because Ironhide fired a well-timed, and well-aimed, shot from his cannon directly into Lockdown's back, preventing him from getting to me. I sped off in the same direction as Prowl and Ironhide as we left behind the bounty hunter. We were just joining the two humans, Bumblebee and the Rescue Bots at the top of a nearby hill when the ship went up in a fiery explosion.

I transformed and looked out at the explosion with the others.

"So, you think Lockdown survived?" the red mech asked.

"Even if he did, his trophies didn't," I replied. "That's a good thing."

"He is also stranded on Earth," Prowl pointed out. "I am not sure this was a wise idea of yours."

"Maybe not," I agreed. "But it sure felt good to give the bad guys something to worry about for a change."

A half hour later we were back at the fire house. The red mech I had learned was named Heatwave and the orange and white mech was Blades. He was a bit of a fanboy when it came to Bumblebee, which I found amusing. The one that could've been Prowl's blue and white twin was named Chase and though they did look different, their personalities were so similar it left the rest of us staring at them and wondering how they weren't related. There was also a green mech by the name of Boulder.

"Thank you guys for getting us out of there," Boulder said. "Especially for rescuing Cody as well."

"Yeah, thanks," Cody said with a cheerful smile. "I'm glad to be out of there." He gave a shudder and his dad pulled him into a side hug to comfort him.

"Of course," I replied. "If Lockdown ever returns just give us a call. Maybe next time I'll blow _him_ up instead of just his ship." I grinned a bit.

Ironhide laughed a bit. "That's right. We'll blow him to Cybertron," he said.

Prowl just sighed, muttering about how apparently I spent too much time with Ironhide.


	35. Curiosity

**A/N:** Holy crap it took me forever to get this done. *sigh* Well I have no real excuse other than the fact I kept getting distracted and I now work two jobs and mostly it was distracted by Mass Effect. Mass Effect is a really good series though! You can't blame me for loving it! XD

Anyway, here is the chapter. I hope you enjoy it. :)

**Chapter 35: Curiosity**

"I'm telling you it should be here," I heard someone say as I walked through the corridors.

"No, they'll see it there! It should be a little to the left!" another voice said.

"Will ya two quit fightin' and place da thin' a'ready? Somebot's comin'," another voice said.

I shook my helm, recognizing the voices and having a good idea what they were up to. Sunstreaker, Sideswipe and Jazz had seemingly made it their mission to get Bumblebee and Flareup together. I found it quite humorous and couldn't help, but chuckle as I heard the three scatter from the hall just as I turned the corner.

As I stated my walk down the hall, my optics glanced up to the ceiling, looking for their latest plan. I spotted it rather quickly, smiling a bit at the very human trick they were trying. It wasn't Christmas season, but the twins were determined to get Bumbleebee and Flareup together so apparently they were resorting to one of the classic human tricks.

I casually walked around the mistletoe and continued on my trek to med bay in order to say good night to Ratchet.

"I told you it was visible!" I heard Sunstreaker whisper harshly to his brother and a light 'thwack' followed.

I chuckled as I walked off and out of hearing range of whispers. The twins could be annoying at times, but most of the time I simply found them funny. Well, now that they weren't teasing me all the time anyway, though when they did now it didn't bother me.

I poked my helm into the medbay and looked around to see if Ratchet was in. I knew he usually was doing inventory at this time of day, so it didn't surprise me when I didn't see him in the main room of the med bay and the door to the storage room wide open. I walked over to the computer to see what was displayed. It appeared he had been in the middle of reviewing medical records, so I turned away, not wanting to be too nosey.

I was examining a wrench when I felt arms wrap around me from behind and I smiled, leaning back against Ratchet.

"Hey," Ratchet said softly.

"Hey," I said, smiling. "How are you?"

"Hmph," he replied. "Would be better if the twins hadn't pranked me."

I couldn't keep the amusement from my tone. "They pranked you?" I tried to turn to look at him, but his hold tightened and prevented me from turning.

"Yes," he huffs and shifted his hold on me.

I frowned and then looked down at the arms around me. That's when I noticed they weren't their usually white and red, but a minty green and yellow. I couldn't hold back a laugh completely and it came out as a snort.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up..." Ratchet sighed as if resigned to having me laugh at him.

"Aww, my poor Ratchet," I said, giggling. I turned in his arms, getting little resistance now, and wrapped my arms around his neck to hug him. "I still love you." I kissed him gently. "Though I would reccommend a trip to the washracks."

Ratchet finally chuckled and then kissed me in return. "Well, if it gets you to kiss me, I suppose it is worth it," he said, smiling a bit.

I giggled. "Silly mech," I said. "Ok, I'm starting to act silly, so I should get some recharge before I'm in permament silly mode."

Ratchet chuckled. "I would be inclined to agree," he said. "But first..." He cut himself off by kissing me deeply, tugging me closer to him.

I kissed him back easily, again ignoring the tugging sensation in my spark, with a bit more effort than usual. It seemed the longer I was ignoring it, the stronger it got, but I was too nervous to ask Ratchet what it meant. Sure we had been dating for a few months now, but I was still very unsure about asking certain questions.

When we pulled back from the kiss, I smiled up at him and he smiled back, nuzzling me.

"Good night, my femme," he said softly.

I nuzzled him back. "Good night, Ratch'," I replied, my doorwings fluttering. "Love you."

"I love you too," Ratchet said and kissed my forehelm. "Sweet dreams."

I smiled and left with a wave once he let me go. I rubbed at my chest a little as I felt my spark pull again as I walked out of med bay. I really had to remember to ask someone what that meant. I was hesitant to ask Ratchet, though I caught him rubbing his chest when we parted sometimes as well. I knew he would know, but I wondered why he hadn't mentioned it, so I wasn't gonna talk to him about it until I knew what it meant.

I was in front of my quarters before I even realized it. Shortly after entering, I climbed into my berth, pulling my blanket over me as I curled up in the berth. I offlined my optics, letting my doorwings fall into a relaxed, natural position. Within a few moments, I was deep into recharge.

**~Unending Sea, Pocket Universe**~

One moment I was in blissful darkness, the one that was usually followed by my dreams of deep recharge, which is what made it blissful and not disconcerting, and the next I was looking out at an expansive ocean of water. The water was bluer than the oceans I saw on Earth, purer and more full of life. Nothing here would taint such a lovely sight.

I turned my attention to the sand underneath my pedes. It was a white sand, soft and smooth. I could see seashells gathered along the shore line, pushed onto the shore by the waves rolling out. Some were...different looking from sea shells I had seen in the past. It was almost like they were alien sea shells, which wouldn't surprise me at all considering I did see a Thresher Maw one visit, which definitely wasn't anything from Earth.

"I am the very model of a scientist Salarian."

I looked up, hearing someone singing and then blinked as I saw what appeared to be a person, though definitely not human. They were almost reptile-like, except their eyes were closer to a salamander's, and their skin was far smoother than a reptile. Their hands and feet were also amphibian-like. They were wearing a white lab coat that appeared to be part of the being's armor.

"I've studied species Turian, Asari and Batarian. I'm quite good at genetics as a subset of biology because I am an expert, which I know is a tautalogy. My xenoscience studies range from urban to agrarian. I am the very model of a scientist Salarian!"

The being, who from their voice I assumed was male, held the last couple notes longer than the rest. As he was singing, he seemed to be gathering seashells, and even as his song ended he continued to hum as he collected sea shells.

"Intact. Perfect for running tests," I heard him murmur to himself.

I blinked, but then jumped when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked over it to find my creator smiling kindly. I looked back to noticed that the alien had now noticed me. He seemed to be smiling as he watched and my doorwings twitched a bit in curiosity.

"Come on, daughter," Vector said, bringing my attention to him as he physically directed me away. "We have much to catch up on."

"It doesn't feel like all that long ago I was here," I replied, following him. "Not a whole lot to tell."

Vector chuckled. "Oh but you do have questions," he stated and tapped a digit on my chest.

My doorwings quirked, seeing what question he was referring to. Well, might as well ask him while I was here. I mean he did have experience and so did Solus and Megatronus. And the others wouldn't laugh or make fun of me for asking such a question. And surely it wouldn't be something they would make me learn myself.

"I have to concede on that one," I said, nodding. I glanced back to the alien in curiosity and then turned back forward. "Like what and/or who was that? I am guessing he was a sentient being."

"The Salarian? Oh he's Mordin Solus," Vector replied. "He was a Salarian scientist who served to help Commander Shephard many years ago during the fight against the Reapers in their home universe. He also cure the Genophage. Of course, that was so long ago that the entire crew has joined him here."

I blinked and looked up at Vector, mouth partially ajar. "Shephard? Reapers? Genophage? You do realize I have no idea what you are talking about," I told him.

Vector laughed. "You will understand one of these days," he said. He gave my shoulder a reassuring squeeze that also told me not to press for what that meant.

"Are you not allowed to explain it to me?" I asked.

"Nah, I just think you'll have more fun learning it on your own," Vector grinned.

I shook my helm at my creator and chuckled. "Now you have me curious," I said. "But I won't press, because I know how you are."

Vector chuckled and then he teleported us to the others.

When we arrived I saw that they were sitting on boulders, which in turn were surrounding a pond that was about one-hundred meters in diameter, making it large enough for all of them to sit around it with room to spare. They had bot-sized fishing poles in their servos, and I could see a half dozen bobbers floating in the pond.

"You guys are fishing without me?" I asked, putting on a mock pout.

That got a chorus of chuckles and Solus patted the empty boulder next to her in a clear invitation to join. I did as invited as Vector took the boulder next to mine, picking up a fishing pole he had clearly left behind to pick me up. Solus took a second one from her subspace and handing it over to me.

"Thank ya," I said.

"You're welcome," Solus smiled.

I grinned and then cast my line into the pond to join the Thirteen's. The bobber bobbed in the water before settling into the waves of the water, remaining afloat. I watched as one bobber suddenly was pulled and Alpha Trion reeled in a fish before gently unhooking the fish and releasing it back into the water.

"How are you all?" I asked in an effort to make conversation.

"We are well, Shadebreaker," Prima said, smiling. "And how is our young Prime?"

"I am good, though becoming increasingly concerned about something," I said, frowning in thought as I watched my bobber bo in the water as if a fish was biting, only to return to merely floating.

"What is your concern, youngling?" Alpha Trion asked kindly.

I hesitated and then spoke. "Whenever I am spending time with Ratchet, I will feel a tugging sensation in my spark," I explained. "What does it mean?"

Zeta surprisingly was the one to laugh the loudest at my innocent tone as I asked the question. When he looked at me, his optics sparkled.

"You mean you have not figured it out by yourself?" he asked.

"Well, we are speaking to the femme who needed to be told her own feelings because she is so oblivious," Megatronus pointed out. "We should not be surprised by this."

I half glared, half pouted at all of them. "You guys are no help," I said, reeling in a fish and contemplating throwing it at Zeta or Megatronus. I decided it wouldn't be fair to punish the fish for their deeds and released it back into the pond.

Solus gave a soft smile and placed a servo on my shoulder. "Don't mind them, they're just being mechs," she said. "What it means is that your spark has decided it has found it's other half."

"So what? My spark's asking him to be my mate?" I asked.

"In essence," Vector said. "Your spark is calling out to his and, likely, his is calling back. Knowing Ratchet, he hasn't brought it up, because he doesn't want to frighten you or make you feel pressured."

"It is well known that you are one of most oblivious femmes of all time when it comes to things like that," Megatronus said, a hint of teasing in his tone. "He probably felt it wasn't right for him to be the one to explain it, because of his position."

"Your spark pulls because it wants to be connected to it's other half and that is how it lets that be known to you," Solus explained. "I experienced the same thing while Megatronus and I were courting."

"The way to guarantee it is meant to be is if he is also experiencing the sensation," Prima informed me.

"How do I know that?" I asked.

"Ask him," Zeta said with a straight face. "It doesn't always have to the mech to ask about that."

I stared at the member of the Thirteen and was once again tempted to throw a fish at him. "Well that's gonna be awkward," I said flatly.

Megatronus laughed as Vector gave me a reassuring nudge through our bond.

"It'll be fine, my daughter," Vector assured me. "Though, before you talk to him about bonding, you must bring him for a visit."

"Yes sir," I said, smiling. "So...why fishing?"

"Megatronus suggested it," Alpha Trion said. "As a way to pass time."

"Isn't time meaningless here?" I asked.

"It is, but it still gets boring if we just sit around and do nothing," Vector replied.

"I see," I said. I wasn't sure I wanted to see my creator bored. He could control time and space after all. I imagined that opened a world of pranks he could pull using that ability. And sadly, I can see him pulling pranks during bouts of extreme boredom.

"Aww, you wound me," Vector said as if reading my thoughts. He probably did.

"You know I love you," I said, grinning at him.

Vector chuckled and reached over, pulling me into a side hug. "And I you, Little Wing," he said.

I frowned. "Little Wing?" I asked.

He chuckled. "It's what I called you when you were a sparkling," he explained.

My doorwings fluttered and I smiled. "Ah," I said in understanding.

Vector smiled and then we went back to our fishing.

"So, other universes," I said. "How many are there?"

"Countless," Vector replied.

"I do not even know the number and I keep track of what happens in many of them," Alpha Trion added.

"Only Primus and The One know the exact number," Prima said.

I nodded in understanding. "So, are there multiple universes of varying events of the universe that Mordin guy is from?" I asked.

"There are," Vector replied. "In some he is not the great Salarian scientist that you saw at the Unending Sea."

I frowned. "Are the other versions of him here?" I asked.

Solus shook her helm. "No, we made it a rule to only let one version of the Normandy's crew here," she said. "The Pocket Universe has very curious properties and we are still learning them ourselves since Vector created it."

"We merely wished not to accidentally cause a collapse of this universe," Vector explained.

"Ah," I said and then looked at my creator in curiosity. "Will I get to meet Mordin?"

"Perhaps," Vector replied, his optics sparkling in muschief.

I gave him a flat look. "That is not fair," I said. "Though I am assuming that I will considering the fact you are being that way and said something about me finding more out about that universe on my own."

Vector chuckled.

"That doesn't necessarily mean you will meet them," Megatronus piped in, an amused sparkle in his optics. "After all, there are games about it in your universe."

My optics widened. "Games?" I asked.

Solus nodded. "They are not one hundred percent guaranteed to be one hundred percent accurate," she explained. "Because there are things you control about how Shephard acts and reacts."

I blinked. "I must play this game," I said. "Now you all got me curious." I looked at Vector seriously. "I still want to meet them though."

The Thirteen all laughed, whether at my words or expression, it was hard to tell.

"Alright, anyway," I said, deciding it was time for a change of topic. "How's Shadowstreaker doing?"

Silence descended and it was quite an unnerving silence as the Thirteen all shared looks. I waited for a few minutes, but when no one replied I started to grow worried.

"What's wrong?" I asked, my doorwings twitching.

"We were recently... informed of the path Shadowstreaker is being asked to walk, but we are forbidden from telling him, or you, despite your presence in another reality," Vector replied.

"Not even a little bit?" I asked, growing increasingly concerned for the mech who was basically my cousin.

Vector gave me a meaningful look, giving me a nudge through our bond not to pry. I frowned to myself, finding it strange that my creator was not telling me everything.

"Well, that sucks," I said before being momentarily distracted as Prima caught a rather large fish. I watched as he unhooked it and threw it back into the water.

"You have no idea," Solus replied and I got the impression none of them were happy not being able to tell Shadow of what was coming.

"Right now, though, he is getting some rest," Alpha Trion said. "So for all intents and purposes, he is just fine."

I nodded. "At least there's that then," I said, reeling my line in and then casting it again to do something with my servos. "I'm sure he can handle whatever life throws at him." I decided. After all, the mech did have double layered armor, an extensive weapon collection and he was the son of two of the Thirteen, that and he was resilient from what I knew. I could only hope I could handle what was thrown at me.

"You'll do just fine," Vector said as if reading my thoughts.

I blinked at him. "I am never going to get used to that," I said flatly, causing the Thirteen to laugh.

We continued to talk for some time. My creator and the others avoided topics that would involve the future, which kind of bothered me. Perhaps it only bothered me, because they didn't seem amused whenever they told me they couldn't answer my questions like they did when I asked about the Mass Effect universe.

"Why can't you tell me anything?" I asked, crossing my servos.

"We are forbidden," Alpha Trion replied. "The One does not wish us to interfere in either yours nor Shadowstreaker's future."

"As much as we want to tell, so you two will be prepared, we cannot," Vector said, sending an apology across our bond.

I sent understanding and forgiveness back to him. "The One?" I asked. "Is that Primus?"

Prima shook his helm. "No," he answered. "Primus was created by The One. The One is the only being that Primus answers to."

I looked at Prima for a moment as realization dawned. "So...The One is what humans refer to as God then?" I asked.

"That is correct," Alpha Trion answered. "The creator of the universe and everything in it."

"Wow," was all I could think to say to that.

Vector chuckled. "Alright, well it's time for some bots to return to their realities," he said, nudging me.

"Aww," I said.

Solus chuckled. "Do you not wish to see Ratchet again?" she asked.

"Of course I do," I said. "I will have to bring him here at some point."

"Yes, you do," Vector said, smiling though a serious glint entered his optics that made me wonder if I should worry.

"We would all like to meet him," Prima said. "After all, if things work out, he will be joining our family."

"Speaking of family, can we talk about one more thing before I leave, please?" I asked, giving them my best puppy dog optics.

"Of course," Alpha Trion replied, smiling kindly.

"I am curious as to why I haven't met either my mother or your mate, Prima," I said, looking between Prima and my creator with a look of confusion. "Who are they? And why are they not here with you?"

"Your mother's name was Nightshade," Vector replied, his optics taking a faraway look. "She is a very beautiful femme. She and Luna, Prima's mate, are currently on their own mission, but I'm afraid I cannot tell you anymore."

"Does this have something to do with the future you are not allowed to reveal?" I asked.

"It is," Alpha Trion replied, nodding.

I pouted, my doorwings drooping slightly. "Aww," I said. There goes my brief thought of hunting them down and bringing them here. Without knowing what they were doing, it was near impossible to know where they might be.

Prima smiled. "I believe you would get along well with Luna, as well as your mother," he said. "Though Luna would likely become protective of you, due to your oblivious and innocent nature. Just like she is with your mother." He smiled, looking like he was remembering a fond memory.

Vector chuckled. "No kidding," he laughed. "Almost took my helm off when I first asked your mother out."

I chuckled. "Sounds fun," I said.

"Not at the time," he said. "But it's humorous to think about." He smiled fondly.

I chuckled again, shaking my helm. "Well...I think I've run out of questions for now," I said.

Vector chuckled. "In that case, we must part," he replied. "It is almost time for you to wake up in your world."

"Aw, alright," I sighed.

Vector stood and I followed suit as he held his arms out for a hug. I wrapped my arms around him tightly as I felt his own wrap around me.

"Always remember, I love you, my daughter," Vector said softly.

"I love you as well," I replied, reinforcing my words with a burst of love across our parental bond, receiving his love back before I found myself slipping out of the Pocket Universe.

**~Autobot Base,Shadebreaker's PoV~**

I woke up feeling rested as I always did when I spent the night in the Pocket Universe. It was a strange phenomenom to me, because when I am there then I am not really recharging, yet I feel as if I have. It was a fact I brought up with the kids as we talked while I drank my Energon.

"It's magic," Miko said, smiling wide as she spread her fingers and moved her hands in an arch.

I heard a scoff before Ratchet spoke up. "Puh-lease," he said.

"It actually wouldn't surprise me if she is right, Ratchet," I said, smiling kindly when he glanced over to me. "After all, the Pocket Universe was created by Vector, one of the Thirteen. Even you said that Vector Sigma is mystical."

Ratchet sighed. "Either way, I am glad that your visits with them do not interfere with your rest," he said. He walked by, pausing briefly to kiss my helm. "I'll be in med bay if you need me."

"Alright, Ratch'," I said, smiling.

As soon as he was gone, my doorwings twitched as I remembered my conversation with the Thirteen. I had to talk to him about it, I knew I did, but I also wanted to wait for a good opportunity. Plus the fact Vector wanted me to brong him to the Pocket Universe first, which will require finding time we both were free. As it was, he would be in med bay all day, tending to Springer, who managed to get his aft given to him by the 'Cons yesterday, and Lunarstrike, who had a minor virus.

I, however, had the day off unless something popped up that required me to attend to it. And I knew just how I was gonna spend it.

"Hey kids," I said, looking over at the teens and pre-teen. "You guys ever hear of Mass Effect?"

"I've heard of it, but I haven't played it," Jack said. "Why?"

"I am curious about it," I replied.

"I know where you can get it!" Miko said, raising a hand. "Do you have a holoform?"

"I do," I said and activated it right next to her.

I created my holoform recently to be better able to spend time with the kids, but hadn't gotten to test it out yet. My holoform was about the same height as Miko with long brown hair tipped in purple and with purple bangs. My eyes were a bright blue, the same color of every Autobot's holoform's. I wore a white hoodie with a purple stripe down the top side of each arm, blue jeans and a pair of tennis shoes.

"Cool!" Miko said, grinning. "Let's go then!"

"One sec," I said and then opened a comm to Bulkhead.** "Hey Bulk! Ya mind if I borrow your charge for a little bit?"** I asked the mech.

**"Bring her back in one piece and call if anything happens,"** Bulkhead replied. **"Where are you guys going?"**

**"To get a video game,"** I replied.** "My creator made me curious about it and Miko said she knows where I can get it."**

**"Alright, just don't be too long,"** Bulkhead said. **"We're supposed to go to a monster truck rally later."**

**"I'll have her back in time,"** I promised.

I logged off the comm and looked at Miko. "We're good to go," I said, smiling.

"Sweet!" Miko cheered and jumped up and down breifly as I deactivated my holoform, saluting Jack and Raf as I did so before transforming down.

Activating my holoform again in the driver's seat as Miko bounded down the stairs. She climbed in my passenger side and buckled in before I started driving out of the base.

The trip to the store was a rather quick one with Miko telling me where to go and once there it didn't take us long to find the games. We found the whole trilogy, paid for it and then left happily.

Overall the trip took about forty-five minutes, because we stopped on the way home for Miko to pick up some ice cream for herself and the other two humans residing in our base. We were back in base long before Miko needed to be back for her thing with Bulkhead.

"Thank you for your help, Miko," I said, grinning before bounding off to the rec room in order to play my new games.

As I was setting up the game in my holoform, the twins popped in and sat on the Cybertronian sized couch next to my real body.

"Whatcha doin'?" Sideswipe asked.

"I'm about to play the Mass Effect games," I replied, holding up my Cybertronian sized controller. I only needed my holoform to put the disc in, so I deactivated it once that was done. "Want to join me?"

"Sure," Sideswipe said. "We'll watch anyway."

"Why do I get the feeling you don't care for this game?" I asked.

"Don't mind him," Sunstreaker said. "The idiot hates any game that makes you think."

I looked over at Sideswipe. "Have you ever played the game before?"

"...No," he said.

"Then watch me and then decide if you like it or not," I said. I nudged him with my shoulder, grinning when he groaned.

"You're not gonna let me leave until you finish the game, are you?" he asked.

"Nope," I grinned.

"Brought it on yourself, bro," Sunstreaker replied, shaking his helm.

"Shut up," Sideswipe said, reaching around me to smack his twin, but I stopped him.

"No fighting," I said. "Especially not with me in between you two."

"Sorry," Sideswipe apologized.

"It's ok," I replied as I focused on the screen.

I chose to start a new game and it went through a little thing where I apparently had to reconstruct the character's profile. I found I could have my character be a male or female. I chose to customize a female Shephard and left the name the same. Then I searched through the options for the pre-service history, reading each option over and thinking carefully. I ended up choosing Spacer and chose War Hero for the psychological profile.

My next choice was what class I should be. I wasn't sure, so I asked the twins for their opinion.

"Well, in reality you are very much like an infiltrator, I believe," Sideswipe said. "That is what Jazz trained you for anyway."

"Alright, I'll go with that then," I said, making the choice.

Several minutes later, I was done customizing my character's appearance and was ready to start the game. I watched and listened to the opening scene with rapt attention, wondering what exactly the three voices were talking about. Obviously Commander Shephard would have a large role in something, but I couldn't place what that something was.

I read the words that played out on the screen after that with interest, wanting to know more about this universe where that Mordin guy was from.

"Arcturus Prime Relay is in relay," a voice said as my character walked through the halls of a ship. "Initiating transmission sequence. We are connected. Calculating trajectory now."

I watched the beginning scenes and couldn't help, but laugh at the one the subtitles revealed was named "Joker". I had to shake my helm at him hating the one called "Nihlus" though. The being so far hadn't done anything that said he was a bad character. His statement to Joker actually reminded me of Prowl.

"Do you have to stop to talk to everyone?" Sideswipe asked, clearly getting impatient for the game to really begin.

"Yes," I answered. "It's how you learn things about what is going on."

Sideswipe groaned and I chuckled, shaking my helm.

Despite his initial complaining about how I would stop, talk to everyone and explore everywhere, Sideswipe ended up getting just as into the game as I was.

"Watch out for that Geth!" Sideswipe called, pointing out the Geth that was walking up behind my character in the firefight I was in.

"Ah, it's ok, Wrex got him," I said as said Krogan charged the Geth.

Wrex was one of my favorite three characters so far in the game. He kind of reminded me of Ironhide. I had a feeling if I had ended up in the Mass Effect universe instead of here, Wrex would end up being the crazy headbutting uncle I never had. He acted gruff and tough, but I could tell he had a warm cuddly side to him. He was a warrior, but he cared and he knew what was right and did it.

Garrus was also one of my favorites and he and Wrex made up my usual team. Garrus seemed to be rather young, still deciding where he stood on some things. He seemed to look up to Shephard as a mentor, wanting to learn how things were done outside of C-Sec, which was basically the police force of the Citadel, which was the center of galactic civilization. He was the same species as Nihlus had been, Turian, and so far was an awesome character. He had a great sense of humor as well.

My other favorite among my top three was Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, a Quarian on her Pilgrimage. She was very tech savvy and to me felt like a younger sister. She loved ships, though I learned from talking to her aboard the Normandy that the quiet of the ship made her a bit nervous at times, being used to noisy ships where quiet was a bad thing.

Ashley was pretty much your ideal soldier, with a few rough edges though. I didn't particularly like her attitude toward the non-human members of the crew, but other than that I liked her. She was the one who proved women could be good soldiers and would follow Shephard wherever it took her.

"You say 'Jump', I say 'How high?'," she had said during one conversation. "You say 'Kiss a Turian', I say 'Which cheek?'"

It made me think there was hope for her opinions on aliens and it was nice to know she didn't let her feelings get between her and working with the crew.

Kaidan was a similar story, though he didn't have a problem with working with aliens. He seemed to be more laid back than Ashley seemed. He was a good soldier and seemed to be a good guy to talk with. He was what was known as a biotic, an L2 to be specific. I was still learning what it meant by L2s and L3s, but I pretty understood that being a biotic meant having some abilities that no one else would be able to have.

Liara was the last squadmate you pick up and the one I was in the process of getting when Sideswipe had shouted about the Geth sneaking up on me. I found her when I heard her yell "Help! I'm trapped! I'm stuck in a bubble!" and followed her voice to where she was indeed stuck in a bubble, which in turn was behind a barrier.

At first I wasn't sure what to think about her, but her almost kid-like attitude won me over quickly. As the game progressed, I started to view her as a little sister more than anything else. Despite her being older than all but Wrex, Liara seemed to be the youngest mentally to me. For Asari, she was barely considered an adult, though she was a hundred and six years old.

I spent the majority of the day playing the first game, with the twins next to me, pointing things out to me and helping me make decisions on what I should do in some circumstances where I wasn't sure. It was a fun time going through the game, though I didn't get done with it before the day was over. I knew I would have other chances to complete it, I definitely wanted to. It was more than just curiosity about another universe now, it was also wanting to know what happens to the characters.


	36. Clues

**A/N:** Whew it took me forever to get this out. Sorry about that, but on top of writing the chapter of ATG that is pending posting until I reach a certain point in YWOB, I also had the hardest time focusing on writing this. I don't know why it has been so hard to concentrate on anything lately, but it has been. But I will figure something out eventually.

Until I get my focus back there is no guarantee when I will have chapters to post for any of my stories, but I will do my best to get them out as fast as I can. I hope you all can be patient with me as I figure this out.

Anyway, here is the chapter.

**Chapter 36: Clues**

I ducked, dodging a blow from my opponent's hammer. I jumped to the side to avoid it on their back swing. I took out my own hammer and swung, our weapons colliding. Due to the fact I had not put a whole lot of focus on my hand-to-hand combat training, I was easily overpowered and forced to retreat a ways. Usually I would just pull out my sniper rifle and find a good sniping place, but the purpose of this exercise was to improve my hand-to-hand.

I took a deep breath as my opponent charged at me and hefted my hammer, posed for a strike. When my opponent got near, I took a swing as they lifted their own hammer and got them in the side, successfully knocking them off balance enough for me to dodge behind them. Once behind them, I unsheathed my short blade and stabbed it into the mech's back.

The simulated brute cried out in pain as the dagger dug into sensitive and important wiring and networks. He turned in anger and knocked me away with his hammer.

I grunted as I slammed into a wall, feeling lucky I hit my side instead of my back, as it left my doorwings no more damaged than they already were. It did, however, put a dent in my right shoulder and cause the whole arm to hurt. I muttered a quiet word of pain before looking up as the brute ran toward me. I rolled out of the way, causing my opponent's hammer to come down on the wall.

Seeing an opportunity, I swung my pede and used it to pull the brute's own pede, the only one he had his weight on, out from under him. This caused the massive mech to fall face first into the ground and gave a perfect opening for me to slam my own hammer down on his weakspot, that my dagger had apparently been yanked out of. With a thud and scream of simulated pain, my opponent was offline and flickered out of existence with a shower of digital dust.

I panted and used my hammer to support myself. It had been a long training session and the dent to my shoulder was hardly my only injury I sustained. My left doorwing had a minor cut on it from a close call with a simulated Ravage, just enough to cause me discomfort. My left pede sparked every now and then and hurt to stand on for a long time now that my focus was not focused elsewhere. And I had a few more dents along my whole chassis. Ironhide was always a rough teacher, whether it be in the use of various guns or in hand-to-hand. He was even rougher now that I was supposedly a Prime. I had asked him to help me become a better fighter though.

That was something I was still trying to wrap my processor around. I wasn't leader material and I also definitely was not an equal to Optimus Prime in anything. Much less any better than him at anything at all. I couldn't even one-up him on getting the courage to tell Ratchet my feelings, since he and Elita had finally gotten their acts together in that area. That wasn't a defining factor of a Prime regardless. Fact is, I am the most useless member of the team.

So why me?

Why not Arcee? She would've made a much better choice. As would Elita, Jazz, Prowl. Heck, even the twins would've made better choices….Well, maybe not them, but if they ever stopped acting like little kids they would. Bumblebee would've definitely made a good Prime someday.

So why me?

"Hey, ya alright, kid?" Ironhide asked as he walked up to me, breaking me out of my thoughts.

I gave him a look. "I'm dented, my pede is sparking, my wing has a cut and my arm hurts like it got slammed into a wall, which it did, and you ask if I am alright?" I replied.

"Well, are ya?" he asked, hearing the teasing in my tone.

"Couldn't be better," I said, a small grin on my face though I could feel it wasn't entirely genuine, due to both my thoughts on my position and my fatigue.

Ironhide chuckled and then helped me balance as I put away my hammer. "Come on, let's get you to Ratchet," he said.

"You know, he's going to chew you out for putting me in this condition," I pointed out.

"Do you want to stumble your way to med bay alone?" Ironhide asked gruffly. When I shook my helm he huffed. "Then ya better defend meh or next time you're on ya own, kid."

I chuckled. "Don't worry," I said. "It's not like I didn't tell you not to go easy on me. Besides, I wasn't fighting against you technically. So technically you didn't beat me up. The simulator did."

Ironhide shook his helm. "I am surprised at your sudden desire to learn how to fight well," he said.

"It's not really sudden," I replied as I limped my way down the hallway with his help. "I've given a lot of thought into it. I want to become better at fighting. I don't want to always be the one you all have to cover. I am supposed to be a Prime, I should be covering your aft, not the other way around."

Ironhide glanced at me out of the corner of his optics. "So in other words, you feel weak," he said.

I sighed and nodded. "You guys all have something you do, a role to play," I said. "Optimus is our leader, our defender. You are our weapons specialist along with Chromia. Elita is the leader of the femmes. Ratchet is head CMO. Moonracer is learning to be a medic and also a sniper. Flare-up is demolitions. The twins kick aft on the frontline. Bumblebee is a scout who in all rights should be a warrior. Blue' is a sniper. Ect, ect….everyone has a role it seems, except for me. I'm a Prime without a real role."

"Sure ya do," Ironhide said. "Ya keep us all in check. Ya remind us what we're fighting for."

I gave him a look. "And how do I do that?" I asked skeptically.

"You are innocent," he said. "You still view the world through optics that have not seen the horrors of war. You don't hold a prejudice toward anybot. From what I hear, you even once tried to convince Starscream to change sides."

"Yeah, well, that didn't work out," I said. "He later betrayed me and sold me out to MECH."

"Do you regret being civil to him when you were?" Ironhide asked.

I paused for a moment. "No," I said. "In all honesty, I wouldn't hate him if he did decide he wanted to join us. Maybe I wouldn't trust him, but I wouldn't hate him."

Ironhide nodded as if I just proved his point. "In that way you keep us going," he said. "You are our moral support. Ya even got Sunstreaker to allow ya to hug him on a semi-normal basis."

I chuckled. "Yeah, after in severe case of youngling-like behavior I chased him all around base," I said with a grin.

"The point is, you do have a role," Ironhide said. "Maybe it isn't as explosive as some of ours, or as obvious, but it is just as important. You are not a 'Prime without a role'."

I hummed in thought. He had a point, I supposed, but I still felt I should do more. Especially since I am a Prime, according to Vector. I guess I couldn't really argue with my creator. I just didn't understand it, really. It was something I was going to have to ask him further about next time I saw him.

"Hey Ratch!" Ironhide called as we entered the medbay.

Ratchet turned from the computer to see us and his optics widened a bit. "What have you two been up to?" he asked.

I gave a sheepish smile. "I may have pushed myself too far in the simulator," I said. He didn't need to know that Ironhide had been the one to push me. He only did so cause I asked him to.

Ratchet shook his helm, but glared at Ironhide, likely knowing it was a training session with him. I always came out a bit battered from our training sessions. We through the same thing pretty much every time.

Ironhide settled me on a berth before leaving medbay with a short goodbye. I looked to Ratchet as he walked over, looking stern.

"Hey Ratchet, how are you?" I asked innocently.

Ratchet just shook his helm. "You need to stop pushing yourself so hard, femme," he said. "You've been doing so ever since your last visit to your creator. Is there something you learned you have not told us?" As he asked, started repairing my injuries, starting with my pede.

I shook my helm. "No," I answered, holding my pede as still as I could. "As I told you before, they said that they were not allowed to tell me anything. In a way that is why I have been training hard. Clearly something is coming, but without knowing what I just want to be prepared." That and it was admittedly a distraction from the topic of my spark calling to his. I wasn't sure how to bring that up and I haven't brought Ratchet to see my creator yet.

"Hm," Ratchet said in thought. "That doesn't mean you have to train so hard you come in here limping. I oughta give Ironhide a lesson about letting you continue to train through wounds."

I sighed. "It's not his fault, Ratchet," I said. "I chose to keep training. The only reason he let me is cause we both knew you could easily fix me up and I promised that if I got hurt too badly I would quit."

Ratchet huffed. "Fine," he said and an awkward silence fell between us. Well, it was awkward to me at least.

"So, how have you been?" I asked again, having not gotten an answer the first time.

"Well, other than worrying about you and your sudden interest in becoming a better fighter, I've being driven crazy by the twins and my favorite wrench is missing," Ratchet replied.

"Aw, I'm sorry," I said, smiling, though I was sure my expression was a bit guilty.

Ratchet saw my guilt and looked at me after finishing my pede. "What do you know, femme?" he asked.

"I borrowed it," I said, smiling sheepishly. "And forgot to put it back." I took it out of my subspace and held it out for him.

Ratchet blinked, looking surprised before taking it. He sighed. "And here I was gonna bust the twins," he said.

I smiled sheepishly again. "Not everything is the twins' fault," I said. My doorwings twitch in amusement, causing me to flinch slightly.

"You are gonna drive me batty as well," Ratchet grumbled, moving to repair my doorwing, seeing the discomfort it was causing me.

"Aw, but you still love me, right?" I said, looking up at him.

Ratchet sighed. "Of course I do," he said and leaned over, lightly kissing me. "But you still drive me batty."

I giggled and grinned. "I love you too, Ratch'."

We were silent for the rest of the time spent with repairs, which didn't take long at all. I wasn't damaged that badly and didn't even need to be taken off-duty. Of course, Ratchet did comment about how he would rather me stay out of the simulator for a day or two before he found me in his medbay again for more repairs. I wasn't planning on another trip to the simulator today anyway.

"Don't worry, Ratchet," I said, placing a servo on his cheek. "I know my limits. I may push them in order to extend them, but I know better than to push them too much."

"You better," he said, placing a servo over mine. He held it as he leaned forward and kissed me gently.

I kissed him back before we were interrupted by the alarm going off. We pulled back from each other and Ratchet grumbled about being interrupted. I just smiled and walked out toward the Ops Center. When we got there only Ironhide and Chromia were there, the others all already out on missions. There were a few spots where MECH activity was suspected as well as an Energon mine some were investigating.

"What have we got?" I asked, walking up.

"MECH appears to be working all over the place," Chromia said. She stepped aside to let Ratchet take over the controls.

"Hmm," he said. "It certainly seems that way. There are now two different locations from the ones earlier."

"Could it be that they're in one place and somehow fooling the sensors into believing they are in multiple places?" I asked.

"If that were the case, the others would be back," Ironhide stated gruffly. "Something else is going on here."

"Maybe they're searching for something," Raf suggested. He typed away at his laptop. "At all of the locations they have appeared there has also been another energy signal. It doesn't match any of the known Autobot or Decepticon signals, but it's distinctively Cybertronian."

Ratchet was typing and looking at the signals as Raf spoke and he turned to the rest of us. "He's right," he said. "I don't know how it's possible, but it's the same signal at each location. It's as if whoever this bot is they're in all the locations at once."

"Or they're at one," Chromia said. "Let's back up and think about Shade's suggestion that MECH could be fooling our sensors. What if this new bot is doing exactly that?"

"It makes sense that MECH would try to find them," I said. "We know they're after our technology and will dissect any one of us in order to get that technology, whether it's from an Autobot or Decepticon."

"So they're really at just one of the locations," Ironhide said. "But MECH has no way of knowing which one without investigating them all."

"Is the signal stronger in any of the locations? Or present anywhere aside from where MECH has gone?" I asked.

Ratchet typed in some commands and a few more locations popped up on the map. One of the newest two locations for MECH was highlighted along with a couple of the newest locations.

"These three locations the signal is stronger," he said. "But it is strongest here." He brought up the location highlighted where MECH was.

"Then it stands to reason that the bot is there," I said. "We should go help them out."

"Should we call Optimus first?" Raf asked, looking up from his laptop.

"No time," Ironhide said. "If MECH gets their hands on the bot while we wait for backup, it wouldn't be good."

"Agreed," I said, nodding. "Ratchet, contact OP as soon as you can, the three of us will go and see about helping this new bot."

Ratchet nodded and looked at me. "Be careful," he said.

"Don't worry, I will," I said. "Plus I got the best backup one could ask for." I added, indicating Ironhide and Chromia.

"We won't let MECH get this new bot or get their hands on Shade again," Ironhide nodded.

"I'll hold you to that," Ratchet said and turned the controls.

In another minute the Ground Bridge activated and I turned to go into it, but a frantic beeping stopped me and I looked back to the computer with the others.

"Slaggit," Ratchet grumbled. "Three Decepticon signals converging on the location you are about to depart to. As well as at least one heading toward the other locations."

"Whatever it is, the Cons are after it too," Raf said.

"Well then, we must not let them acquire it," I said and turned back to the Ground Bridge, shoulders squared and wings tilted in a determined manner. "Come on, 'Hide and 'Mia. Let's kick some can." Though odds were they would do most of the kicking and I would end up sneaking around to find whatever it was that was there.

"Right," Ironhide said and followed me through the Ground Bridge, Chromia right next to him.

We exited the Ground Bridge in the middle of a harsh snow. It wasn't quite blizzard worthy, but it did take visibility down quite a bit. How anyone thought they were going to find anything in this was beyond me, but they were here, so we had to do something. The cold washed over me as we took a few steps forward and looked around.

"I can hardly see anything," I noted.

"I am surprised MECH is out searching in this," Chromia noted. "I am cold and humans can take less cold than we can."

"I don't see why they call this place 'Greenland'," Ironhide said, looking around. "All I see is white."

"There's also an Iceland that is covered in grass," I said, smiling a bit at the irony. "Anyway, we need to find whatever they are after first." I twitched my doorwings, making snow that had built up on them fall off. "It may be cold, but if MECH is determined, they won't let low visibility and cold stop them."

"And don't forget the Decepticons," Ironhide said, holding up a datapad. "According to their trajectory and speed, they'll be here in about ten minutes."

I nodded. "Keep alert," I said. I made sure my sensors were on their highest settings. Even if I couldn't see as far as normal, my sensors would pick up anything before it got too close.

My dooriwngs shifted as the sensors in them picked up movement low to the ground behind me. A quick glance revealed it to be a small snow rabbit. I smiled a bit before starting to walk.

Ordinarily on a search and find mission, I would ask the others what they thought we were looking for, but this time I knew they didn't have anymore clues than I had. All we knew is that it either has moved or there's more than one of them. We were all pretty sure it was a bot, but it was hard to be sure. If it was moving, it had to be something living and the locations of the appearances suggest that if they were just one and moving then they had some kind of teleportation technology.

I was more than just searching to keep them out of MECH and Con hands, I was also searching out of my own curiosity.

After about five minutes searching, five left until the Cons arrived somewhere nearby, I felt a pull in my spark. I stopped and looked around, wondering what that had been. It was a similar feeling to when my creator had led me to him using our bond. It was a guiding feeling with a sense of love behind it, but it felt different than when Vector was communicating to me through our bond.

I felt it again, this time a bit more urgently and I looked in the direction it had pulled, and was still pulling, in.

"What is it Shade?" Chromia asked and I noticed she and Ironhide had stopped shortly ahead of me and were looking back at me in concern.

"I am not sure," I said, glancing over at them, then looking back in the other direction when the pull became more urgent. Whoever it was felt it was urgent we reach where they wanted to lead us before the other parties. "But I need to check it out."

With that, I started walking in the direction I was being pulled. I kept my sensors on high alert, doorwings spread to pick up the most data they could about my surroundings. I sensed, rather than saw, my fellow Autobots following behind me, equally alert. I could feel their concern about me. Some of the sensors in my doorwings were made to pick up emotions, as I had recently learned from Ratchet. Typically it is only enough to know if someone was happy or feeling down, but I had put all my sensors on high alert, so now I could feel specifics about feelings.

We walked for several minutes before the first signs of opposition entered our sensors. Decepticons were arriving on the scene just out of our immediate visual range. Odds were they knew we were here as well, if the signals coming toward us were any indication. There were three, just as the readings Ratchet had picked up had indicated. Only two of them were headed toward us.

"**Cons heading our way," **I said over our comlinks. **"There's cover to our sides, I suggest we use it to our advantage."**

We each ducked into the cover on the sides and waited in silence for the Cons to get closer. Poking my helm out a bit, grateful that my white armor helped me blend into the scenery, as long as none of my purple was in visual range anyway. The two cons heading our way reached visual range shortly. As I took out my battle pistol, I watched the two drones closely, determining if they were looking for us or if they were looking for something else and were not aware of Autobot presence here.

"I don't get why we are being sent all over the place," one of the drones complained to his partner. "What are we even looking for?"

"Why are you asking me? Nobot tells me anything," the other drone said, sounding irritated.

As they spoke, I lined up a shot on one of them, aiming at their helm. A brief glance to the other side, I saw Chromia lining up a shot to the other drone. Almost in synchronized motion, one drone fell followed a half second later by the other. It didn't take long for the third 'Con to come investigate.

"Peter! Joe!" a third drone said, seeing his partners fallen on the ground. He started looking around only to be shot down by Ironhide.

"Well that was easy," Chromia said as we all stepped out to regroup.

"I hate it when you say that," Ironhide sighed.

I shrugged. "Doesn't automatically mean something will be hard soon," I said and then started walking again in the way I was being pulled. "Now come on, it's this way."

"How do you know?" Ironhide asked as he and Chromia began following me.

I had to think about how to answer for a moment. "It's kind of hard to explain when focused on something besides explaining," I said. "I just know, ok?"

I sensed rather than saw the two of them share a look behind my back. I sighed, knowing I would have some explaining to do, but since Chromia wasn't saying anything I figured the scanner she held said the same thing I was saying.

We were walking for another half hour before we came across anymore trouble. We found a large cave where both the scanner and the pulling sensation in my spark were saying whatever we were looking for was there. Unfortunately, it was also crawling with MECH soldiers. They were hard at work, it appeared, removing rock from the cave. Presumably they were trying to find the same thing we were. Whatever it was, it has attracted the attention of every known faction.

"This makes things complicated," Ironhide said quietly, shifting so he was between me and the soldiers despite them being unaware of our presence.

"But not impossible," I said, looking around, scanning the area with my optics. A slight pull in spark brought my optics to a hole in the ground a little bit away. It would be easy enough to get to. "I found an alternate route."

The others looked and Chromia looked at her scanner. "Are you sure it's attached to the cave?" she asked.

"One way to find out and I'd rather take this route than charge a MECH squad," I said, heading over to the hole, keeping low so the soldiers wouldn't see me.

"I'll stay out here and keep an optic out for trouble," Ironhide said. "I'll comm. you if it looks like they have spotted you."

I looked at Ironhide for a moment. His expression gave no room for argument, so I nodded. "Alright," I replied. "I'll comm if I need your help."

"Be careful," Chromia told him firmly with a look that made me think they had been talking over their bond.

"I will," Ironhide promised.

With that, I slipped into the hole in the ground and found myself in a tunnel just barely tall enough for me to stand, but narrow enough I had to straighten my doorwings behind me to keep them from scraping the sides. Chromia slid down behind me, fitting in the small tunnel only a little bit better than I did.

We walked through the twisting tunnel for several minutes, following the strange pulling sensation in my spark. I had to wonder if it was Vector or if it was my mother. It felt different than when it was Vector, but that didn't mean it wasn't. I was more inclined to believe it was someone else who I had a bond with though and the only other one I could think of was my mother.

We eventually came to a wide cavern. The cavern was crawling with digging MECH soldiers so we stuck far enough in the tunnel that we remained out of sight. I could feel a pull toward something on the far side of the cavern and I noticed another tunnel that was just low enough for me to climb into, but too high for the soldiers to easily reach. I motioned to it to Chromia.

"**Through there, but I can't get to it with all these MECH soldiers in my way,"** I told her through the comm link.

"**I'll handle it,"** she said and before I could ask what she meant, she darted around me and into the cavern.

"**Chromia!"** I called through the comm, servo reached out from where I had tried to stop her.

"**I'll lead them outside!"** she replied, already leading the MECH soldiers away as they all converged on her. **"Ironhide and I can handle them. Get what we're here for!"**

I growled to myself in frustration, but stayed put until the soldiers were all out of the cavern. I hated that they were putting themselves in danger, but I knew I had to get what we were after or it would be for naught.

Once all the soldiers were clear, I ran out and across to the other tunnel. I climbed up into it and discovered I had to crawl through it with my doorwings flattened against my back.

_I always find myself in these situations,_ I sighed to myself as I crawled.

I made my way through the tunnel, turning at each junction the way that the pull in my spark was telling me to. Eventually I crawled out into another cavern. The walls were covered in multi-colored sparkles that made the cavern glow. There was a small stream of water running the length of the cavern coming from and going to who knows where. Small luminescent mushrooms grew along the side of the stream and in some crevices on the edges of the cavern. It was a breathtaking sight as I straightened once outside of the tunnel.

On the far end there was a dark spot that caught my optic. Just as I looked over a pair of orange glowing orbs light up as if they had waiting for me to look in that spot. The orbs lit up a face of a bot, but before I could get a closer look, they were gone. Where the bot had been, some mushrooms were behind and were now visible. Their glow illuminated the outline of a small box that had me curiously walking over.

_.:Use it well,:._ a voice said in my spark before the presence that had been leaving me left.

I looked around with a frown before looking back at the box. The box itself was a simple black box, small enough to fit in one of my servos when I picked it up. I opened it to find a small device that I didn't know what it was and a small data chip. It reminded me of a Cybertronian version of a flashdrive, though the ones I had seen Ratchet use were a good amount larger than this one.

Closing the box, I turned back to the tunnel I had entered from. I had what we came for, it was time to leave. I placed the box into my subspace as I commed Ironhide and Chromia to tell them I was headed out and to be ready to call for a bridge.

It took me a few minutes to get back through the tunnel and another minute to reach the mouth of the cave. Once I was there, I ran out and past the MECH soldiers, dodging a few shots from their specialized weapons along the way and was soon joined by Ironhide and Chromia. Half a second after we met each other, a Ground Bridge opened in front of us and we disappeared through it.

"That was a little close," Chromia said and that was when I noticed she was limping slightly.

"Tell me about it," Ironhide said, moving to support her. "Let's get you to Ratchet." He looked at me. "Did you get whatever it was?"

I nodded. "Yes," I said, taking the box out of my subspace.

"Then come on," Ironhide said.

I nodded and followed him and his mate to the medbay, pondering on the bot that had briefly been there as well as on the feelings in my spark.

In the end, the answers would reveal themselves in time.


	37. Tests

**A/N:** Well, this one certainly took a long time to get out, huh? I hope at least some of you are still with me on this one. I apologize for taking so stinkin' long on it. I really have no excuse to give this time. I deeply apologize for the delay and I pray I can get back to my old writing pace or at least write some everyday again soon.

I also apologize for sucking at responding to reviews lately. I will try to keep better track of them.

Anyways, next on my agenda is YWOB and after that I intend to work on my novel until I get the first chapter done no matter how long it takes. It needs to be in my schedule just like the rest of my stories. I need to put a priority on it or it will never get done and that wouldn't be good. It's what I want to do and God has been telling me to write a novel for years. Now I have a plot and several characters and species mapped out. I need to work on it as well.

This means that it will be quite some time until I get another update for this story, but I will do my best to make that time as short as possible. I apologize ahead of time for the wait that is ahead of you for this particular story.

Anyways, enjoy this chapter. It's not quite as long as others, for that I apologize as well. I hope you enjoy it anyways.

**Chapter 37: Testing**

I poked at the device from the box curiously.

"I don't think that's gonna help you figure out what it is," Moonracer said, sounding amused as she watched me from her perch on the table behind me. We had just finished fixing a minor injury that I knew how to fix of hers.

"No, but I'm not allowed to do anything with it until Ratchet gets back," I said, sighing as I stood back. I crossed my arms and tilted my helm at the device. Next to it sat the data chip that had also been in the box.

It had been a week since we had been led to the device and so far we hadn't gotten any answers.

The data chip was heavily encrypted—even Jazz was thus far unable to break through the firewalls. There were layers upon layers of encryption and countermeasures to attacks on all of them. So far Jazz was able to get through two layers before being booted out of the system. This would be good progress if he could pick up where he left off when he tried again—the problem was that he couldn't.

Whenever the systems booted Jazz out, it immediately rebuilt the firewalls that had been successfully hacked through. It was like a video game that didn't have a save point—when you died you had to start completely over.

It was impossible to know what kind of information was on the chip. With it being so heavily encrypted, however, a few of the bots believed it could be information that would turn the tide of the war. Whether or not it was such a game changer would be determined when we managed to get through all the firewalls.

I was sure it would help though. The bot that had left it for me didn't seem to be a bad bot. In fact, they had to have some sort of bond with me in order to be able to lead me as they had—and to speak those words to me in the way they had. I had a theory that it might've been my femme creator, but there was no way to be certain yet.

The device from the box was another story in that we hadn't even tried to figure it out yet. Ratchet had so far been focused on the data chip and he didn't want me touching it without him supervising. Rather he didn't want me touching it at all until we knew what it did.

I frowned, doorwings twitching slightly as I looked at the device. I picked the device up and turned it over in my servos, inspecting it.

"Who do you think it was that led you to them?" Moonracer asked, walking up next to me.

"Whoever it was, I share a bond with them," I said. "Which means they have to be related somehow to either me or Vector."

"Do you think it could've been your femme creator?" Moonracer asked.

I paused, frowning. "That's a theory, but I have no way to be sure," I said. "Maybe I have a sibling Vector has yet to tell me about. Or maybe it's my femme creator's creator. Or an aunt. Or uncle. I won't know until they reveal themselves." My doorwings drooped. "If they do."

"I'm sure they will," Moonracer said, placing a servo on my shoulder. "I'm sure they had good reason not to reveal themselves to you at that time."

"Yeah," I said, looking at the device once more before putting it down.

Just as I placed the device back on the table the door to the medbay opened. I looked up to find Ratchet entering with Optimus following behind.

"Good morning mechs!" I said, smiling as Ratchet walked over.

My courted leaned down to kiss my forehead. "Morning," he said. "You weren't playing with that device, were you?" He eyed the device I had been holding.

"No, not at all," I said, grinning innocently.

Ratchet grunted before going over to join Optimus, who had gone over to the computer we were using to analyze the data chip. They started talking about what methods had been used so far and the results that had been achieved only to be thwarted. Optimus hadn't had a servo in figuring it out yet. He had been busy with missions and meetings ever since the incident where we came across it.

"Well, I'm going to go talk to Flare-up; she wants my advice on something," Moonracer told me as she headed toward the door. "I'll talk to you later, Shade'."

"Alright, Moon'," I answered, waving.

I watched Moonracer leave and then glanced back over at the two talking mechs. I frowned, feeling disappointed because Ratchet had said that we'd work on the device when he got back. It was clear he was too involved with the datachip, however, and he didn't tell me I couldn't figure it out myself once he was back.

I picked up the device and hummed thoughtfully as I looked at it. Sighing, I decided I would tell Ratchet my plans before actually going through with them.

Opening a com channel between him and myself so that I wouldn't disturb Optimus's work, I asked, **"Would you mind if I found someone to help me figure out this device?"**

"**As long as you're careful,"** Ratchet replied. **"Moonracer would probably help you. She's spent enough time with Wheeljack to know her way around odd devices."**

"**Ok, thanks,"** I replied through the comm. **"I'll keep you posted. Love you, Ratch'."**

"**Love you too, Shade',"** Ratchet replied.

Once that was settled, I picked up the device and headed out of medbay. As I walked, I studied the device. It was a rectangular cube shape that had a few buttons on it. Barely visible grooves along each surface made me think of something being folded into this shape, but gave no indication what it was when it was unfolded. The sides I dubbed as the top and bottom both had round holes covered with shutters similar to those I have seen on a camera's lens. One of the longer sides had two buttons and the other longer side had three buttons—one of which was labeled as self-destruct—and one of the shorter sides had two right next to each other along with a third underneath them. The other shorter side only had one button.

I imagined that one of the buttons would unfold the device, but I had to wonder what the rest of the buttons did. The self-destruct button was self-explanatory, but the rest had no labels to speak of.

"Hey, Shade'!" Sideswipe's voice calling out to me interrupted my contemplation of just pressing a button and seeing what happened. I had wondered quite a ways from medbay.

"Hey, 'Swipe!" I said, waving at the red mech. His brother was walking not too far behind. "Hey, Sunny!"

"Don't call me that," Sunstreaker growled irritably.

"But you have such a sunny disposition!" I said, grinning.

Sunstreaker glowered at me, proving the opposite was true.

I grinned as Sideswipe laughed. And laughed...and laughed.

"Ok, Sides' it wasn't that funny," I said, shaking my helm at the red twin.

"S-sorry! I've just never heard you mess with Sunny that much!" Sideswipe said, still laughing.

Sunstreaker growled and whacked his brother on the helm. "That's cause she knows not to push me," he said. "Though she seems to not care today."

"I'm in a semi-defiant mood," I said in answer to the unasked question. I held up the device. "Ratchet made me promise not to figure this out by myself, but I'm really tempted to just press a button whether someone is with me or not and see what happens."

"We can help you there!" Sideswipe said and held out a servo for the device.

I handed it over to him. "There's several buttons on there," I told him. "Just don't press the one labeled self-destruct—it's pretty clear what that does."

"Ok, we'll start with the one next to it then," Sideswipe said and pressed the button.

A blue beam shot from the top of the device while an orange one simultaneously shot from the bottom. The orange hit the ground beneath Sideswipe's pedes first, creating a round, oval shaped orange glowing thing beneath Sideswipe.

"Wha-?" Sideswipe started to ask, but didn't get to finish.

Just as Sideswipe opened his mouth, the blue beam hit the ceiling, creating an identical blue glowing oval on the ceiling directly above Sideswipe. Once that oval was there both seemed to open up and Sideswipe fell through the floor...and out of the ceiling. In an endless loop.

"What—is—hap—penn—ing—to—me?!" Sideswipe asked each time he exited the blue portal on the ceiling.

"It's like that game Portal," Sunstreaker said as we watched his brother move in an endless loop.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I said. "Though this is quite entertaining."

"You are easily amused," Sunstreaker stated.

"Some—bo—dy—st—op—me!" Sideswipe called.

Sunstreaker reached out a servo and pulled Sideswipe away from his fall into the orange portal. Sideswipe's built up momentum sent both twins crashing to the floor and the device rolled about half to the end of the hallway. The sound from the crash was loud enough that I was sure anybot in their quarters at the moment would've heard it.

"What's going on out here?" Chromia asked as she poked her helm out of her and Ironhide's quarters.

"You guys are making a lot of ruckus," Ironhide said as he walked out of their quarters to look around. He saw the portals on the ground and ceiling and raised an optic ridge. "What's this?"

"It's magic!" Sideswipe declared, putting a hand in the air, digits spread.

"It's a portal, watch," I said, pulling a wrench from my subspace and dropping it in the orange portal so that it came out the blue. It began the same endless cycle Sideswipe had been stuck in. "Sides' had gotten stuck in it when we discovered what one of the buttons did on the device we found. The sound was he and Sunstreaker crashing to the ground when Sunny pulled him out of the endless loop of portaling."

Chromia looked curious and went over to fetch the device that had fallen from Sideswipe's servo. As she did that, I walked around the portal to join Ironhide in helping the twins off the ground.

"Kinda reminds me of one of Wheeljack's inventions," Ironhide said, looking at the portals and the wrench going through an endless loop.

"That would explain the self-destruct button," Chromia said, pointing the button we had already seen out.

"Really? I wonder why 'Jackie never let us test it out," Sideswipe said.

"Because you're an idiot," Sunstreaker told his brother.

"But he _always_ has us test his inventions," Sideswipe whined.

"Maybe you weren't around when he invented it," I suggested, accepting the device from Chromia. "I wonder if pressing it again will dissipate the portals or just spout new ones."

"Point it toward the ceiling!" Sideswipe said.

I looked at him. "No," I said flatly.

"But it was fun!" he said.

"Still no," I said and turned the device so that it would have the portals in the walls if it spat new portals out.

When I pressed the button, it didn't exactly retract the portals, more like it moved them. They disappeared from where they had been and appeared on the walls on either side of me. The wrench had just been going through the orange portal when I had pressed the button and its built up momentum sent it flying right into my left shoulder.

I looked at the wrench when it fell to the ground. "I have been hit by my own wrench," I said. "It's a traitor wrench."

Sideswipe burst into laughter, getting my joke easily. Sunstreaker just rolled his optics as Ironhide and Chromia shared slightly confused looks.

"I played Halo once with the twins and blew myself up...the game said I was betrayed," I explained for the two older bots.

"Ah," Ironhide said, amusement entering his optics.

Chromia chuckled and shook her helm. "Well, that moved the portals to where no one will accidentally step into them, but not how to retract the portals," she said.

"We haven't tried this button yet," I said, pressing a button on the opposite side of the device.

There was a pause after I pressed the button. After a few moments many different colored lights flashed from the device and moved along the hallway accompanied by disco-like music.

"Disco party!" Sideswipe exclaimed and started dancing.

I couldn't help but laugh. "Of all the useless things to put in a device," I laughed, doorwings fluttering with my immense amusement.

"Come on guys! It's a disco party! Dance!" Sideswipe said before pulling me over and dancing with my servos.

I shrugged and started dancing with him. It wasn't really dancing with him, cause he soon let go of my servos once he had got me dancing. I saw Chromia coax Ironhide into dancing as well and even Sunstreaker started.

"What is going on here?" Prowl's voice made us all freeze.

"Disco party?" I offered. I fumbled with the device. "What button turns it off…." I trailed off as the portals completely disappeared when I pressed one of the buttons we hadn't tried yet. "Well there's that button. This one?" I pressed the button next to the disco party button and the lights went off and the music stopped.

As soon as I got the disco party stopped, I looked at Prowl, who didn't look too happy. "We were figuring out what this does," I explained. "There's a disco party button…" I pointed to the button.

Prowl sighed heavily and he looked like he was stressed. "And you're trying to figure it out in the hallway of the quarters section?" he asked.

My doorwings drooped as I realized it wasn't the greatest place. "I apologize, I should've found a different spot," I said.

"It's my fault, Prowl," Sideswipe said, stepping up. "We came across Shade' heading from medbay and I decided to help her out with the device. I started pressing buttons first and then we got caught up in it."

"I still should've moved us to a different place, especially after we disturbed Ironhide and Chromia," I said, indicating the two older bots.

"We let our curiosity get in the way of our duty," Chromia said. "It's as much our fault as theirs. We should've shooed them along."

Prowl sighed and rubbed the crest on his forehead as if rubbing away a helmache. "I don't care who's fault it is," he said. "Either you move this to the Safe or I will put you all in the brig."

Just looking at Prowl, I could tell he had had a stressful day. Normally I would ask someone who had a stressful day if they wanted a hug, but Prowl didn't like hugs. He needed peace, quiet and time alone when he was stressed. He needed us to toy with the device in the place meant for it instead of in the middle of a hallway.

"Of course, Prowl," I said.

Without waiting to see if the others were following, I headed down the hallway toward the elevator. I was joined by the twins, but Ironhide and Chromia must've gone to do something else. We walked in silence to the elevator, none of us wanting to disturb anyone who might be busy.

"Prowl looked stressed," I said, breaking the silence once we were in the elevator.

"It's been a long week," Sideswipe said.

"Liaisons have been coming and going a lot," Sunstreaker grumbled.

"But Agent Fowler's not stress-inducing," I said, frowning. The man made me feel reassured that he was our liaison.

"Other liaisons," Sunstreaker clarified.

"We have other liaisons?" I asked.

"It's a fairly new thing," Sideswipe said. "The government has decided that we need to vouch for ourselves more. I think they want to work their way into making our presence known to the public."

"Oh," I said, frowning in thought. "What other liaisons do we have?"

"Well, there's one for the budget," Sideswipe said holding up a digit. "There's also one that's been hounding us all week for use of our weapons to study."

Sunstreaker glowered. "As if Optimus would go for that," he growled.

"There's also one for our supplies that we require for repairs of the base and our persons," Sideswipe said. "And there's another that's negotiating the possibility of having a sociologist or something like that to come and learn about us."

"I'm assuming that's the one that makes you think they want to make us public knowledge," I said, not entirely sure if the idea was a good one.

Sideswipe nodded. "It could go many different ways," he said.

"On top of the new liaisons, we've been working with Agent Fowler to locate MECH," Sunstreaker said. "They caused a lot of uproar last week. Prowl's had a full schedule everyday, just like the Prime." He paused. "The other Prime."

I sighed. "The Prime," I said. "I'm not Prime material."

"That's part of your problem," Sideswipe said. "You don't believe in yourself. You don't believe that you are a Prime, so you don't act like you are one. But you are a Prime, Shade'. Vector Prime called you one. You don't argue with one of the Thirteen. Him calling Optimus a Prime was what made him truly believe he was Prime."

I frowned, looking at the device. "So what if he called me a Prime?" I asked. "I haven't done anything deserving of the title. I feel like I just inherited the title. It's supposed to be earned."

"So then earn it," Sunstreaker said, looking down at me seriously. "You are a Prime and if you feel you need to earn it then do so."

I frowned and then nodded. "Would you two be willing to help me learn how to fight better?" I asked. "If I'm a Prime I should be more useful."

"Of course!" Sideswipe said, grinning. He placed an arm around my shoulders. "You'll be learning from the best!"

"Thanks, you guys are the best," I said and pulled both of them into a hug.

"Gah! My paint!" Sunstreaker yelped.

"Stop whining you big baby, I didn't harm your paint," I said, letting them go.

Sunstreaker huffed.

I smiled and made a mental note to ask Optimus if he could teach me a thing or two about being a Prime when he has the time. I should've done so a long time ago.

We made our way the rest of the way to the Safe to find it occupied with Jazz. The saboteur was running the obstacle course on the other side of the room so we didn't disturb him. We huddled around the device on the side where weapons were tested.

"There are four buttons left unpushed," I said. "Not counting the self-destruct."

"Should we press them all at once?" Sideswipe asked.

Sunstreaker promptly slapped his brother in the back of the head. "No, you idiot," he said. "That would probably overload the circuits."

"I'll try these three first," I said, pressing one of the buttons on the short side with three buttons.

There was a pause after I pressed it during which nothing happened.

"Nothing happened," Sideswipe said.

"Thank you captain obvious," Sunstreaker said.

"What about this one?" Sideswipe asked and pressed the button next to it.

Another pause for a few moments as we waited.

"Still nothing," I said.

"Gimme that," Sunstreaker said grumpily and pressed the third and final button on that side.

A sound came from the device, but otherwise nothing happened.

"One last button," I pointed out.

"I want to press it!" Sideswipe declared and took the device from his brother despite his protest.

"You have pressed most of the buttons!" Sunstreaker said. "I've only pressed one!"

"Sunstreaker did only get to press one button so far," I pointed out. "It would be fair to allow him to press the last one."

"Aww, ok," Sideswipe sulked, but handed the device back to his yellow twin.

Sunstreaker smirked triumphantly and pressed the button that was on a side by itself.

The reaction to the button being pressed took a moment to begin, but it happened. The whirl and clinks of a transformation came from the device and it began unfolding itself. Pieces of the device turned and twisted, folded and unfolded to hide some of the button and expand the size of the device. When it was finished transforming, the rectangular box was gone, replaced by a gun of some kind.

The gun itself looked reminiscent of a Path Blaster. It was double-barrelled, presumably one barrel for each color of portal if it still shot portals in this form. It had a grip on the bottom to hold the gun with, but no trigger. The three buttons that had done nothing were on a pad at the butt of the gun.

With its transformation it also opened a holographic display above the gun that said, "Congratulations. You have activated the Portal Gun. Press the right button to fire the blue portal and the left to fire the orange portal. Pressing a button again will make the first portal of that color disappear and appear where you have the gun aimed. The third button makes all portals disappear. This gun is equipped to be able to be attached to your servo for better handling. Don't press the self-destruct! Love, Wheeljack." The message was written in Cybertronian characters.

"Well, Ironhide was right about it being Wheeljack's," I said when the display disappeared.

"Let's see what it can do," Sideswipe grinned.

We walked over to the shooting range, Sunstreaker keeping possession of the gun. After a moment, the yellow twin fired the blue portal on a side wall next to one of the targets and the orange portal on the ground in front of us. Sideswipe took over and shot his blaster into the portal. The shot came out of the portal on the wall and hit the target on the outermost ring.

"Hold on, I got an idea," I said, holding my servo out for the gun.

Sunstreaker handed it to me and I fired the blue portal above an old worn down tank we were given for target practice. I then pulled a grenade from subspace, pulled the pin and dropped it into the orange portal at our feet. The grenade fell through the portal and landed on top of the tank, blowing up on contact.

"Oh! I got one!" Sideswipe said, taking the gun.

We took turns for several hours, each of us coming up with ideas to utilize the portal gun in a gunfight. We didn't go through nearly all of the ideas I had in my helm for it, but most of mine wouldn't be able to be tested outside of battle or the simulator. At this point we were just having fun shooting things and after awhile we stopped playing with the portal gun in favor of the twins teaching me some tricks for the battlefield. Jazz even came over to help out at some point.

Night came around faster than I expected and we were heading away from the Safe. Jazz had left long before the twins and I, but I had wanted to work on my skills more.

"So, who should get dibs on the portal gun?" Sideswipe asked as we walked toward the quarters.

"What kind of question is that?" Sunstreaker asked. "It's Shade's! She found it and I think she'll put it to good use."

"I agree," Sideswipe said, grinning down at me. "It'll give you a tool to help with your fighting. To create your own, unique style."

I smiled uncertainly. "I suppose so," I said, looking at the gun we had returned to box form. "I already have some ideas for that."

Sideswipe grinned. "We'll have to test them out in the simulator tomorrow," he said.

"Yeah," I said. "Anyways, I am going to go check in with Ratchet, let him know I didn't blow myself up testing this."

Sideswipe laughed. "Alright, we'll meet you at the simulator tomorrow afternoon," he said.

"Okey dokey," I said, grinning.

We parted there with me heading toward the medbay and the twins continuing on to the quarters.

When I reached the medbay, I entered to find Optimus still at work on the datachip and Ratchet working on something else. I smiled when Ratchet looked up and walked over, placing the box on the table.

"How'd it go?" Ratchet asked.

"Oh come on, no hug first?" I asked, holding out my arms.

Ratchet chuckled and then pulled me into a hug. He pulled back as Optimus walked over to join us.

"Have you discovered the purpose of the device?" Optimus asked.

"I have," I said, smiling. "The twins helped as well. It's a portal gun and apparently an invention of Wheeljack's."

"Wheeljack? What's one of his inventions doing on Earth?" Ratchet wondered aloud.

I shrugged. "Presumably he thought it would be useful and sent it with whoever brought the datachip," I said. My doorwings twitched slightly.

"But why not deliver it himself in that case?" Ratchet asked, pacing slightly. "Is he in trouble?"

"Calm yourself, old friend," Optimus said, placing a servo on my courted's shoulder, stopping his pacing. "Perhaps he is merely needed elsewhere at this time."

"If it helps, the bot who left them didn't feel worry for anyone," I put in.

"That worries me too!" Ratchet said, pulling away from Optimus and pacing again. "Somebot shows up out of nowhere, drops these items into our servos and disappears. And they just happen to have some kind of connection to Shade'?! It doesn't sit right."

I blinked at the mech and shared a look with Optimus before bursting into laughter.

"What?" Ratchet asked, pausing in his pacing to look at me in confusion. "What's so funny?"

"Are you...are you jealous, Ratchet?" I asked between laughs. I stopped long enough to look at him with immense amusement.

Ratchet shifted. "I am not," he said.

"Ratchet, whoever it was was most likely related to me," I said. "It very well could be my mother. There's no reason to be jealous over my mother having a bond with me."

"I'm not jealous," Ratchet reaffirmed, looking at me and Optimus as we looked at him worriedly. "It's that they appeared and disappeared just like that. If it is your femme creator, then why didn't she say anything to you?"

"That is a question for her when she does reveal herself," I answered. "No point in getting upset over it. And if it's not her, then that just means I have a sibling out there I have yet been told about." I tilted my helm. "That is question for Vector when I see him next."

Ratchet sighed, rubbing his temple. "Alright, sorry," he said. "It's been on my mind all day."

"It is alright, old friend," Optimus said and I nodded my agreement.

"Anyways, any progress with the datachip?" I asked, turning to the elder Prime.

Optimus sighed and shook his helm. "It is as reported, the security is hard to hack completely through," he said. "I am getting close, however. I am certain it won't be long before we have access to the information inside."

"Well, that's good news," I said, smiling. I paused and shifted slightly, wondering how to ask him for some lessons and if now was the right time to even ask.

"What is it, Shadebreaker?" Optimus asked, seeing my need to speak clearly.

"Well, I was wondering if you would give me some lessons in how to be a Prime?" I asked, looking up at him hopefully. "Since I am a Prime and all, I should learn how to be one."

Optimus placed a servo on my shoulder. "I would be honored to be your teacher," he said. "But the path you take as a Prime is up to you."

I nodded. "I understand," I answered. "But some guidance never hurts." I smiled up at him.

He nodded, giving me a small smile before returning to the computer.

"Alright, well, I'm going to get some recharge," I said, walking over to Ratchet. I leaned up and kissed him lightly on the lips. "Try not to worry too much. And make sure you and him get rest." I indicated Optimus with my helm.

"I will try," Ratchet said, wrapping his arms around me. "Recharge well, my femme." He captured my lips in another kiss, holding it for several moments before releasing me. "I love you."

"I love you too," I said, smiling.

With that, I headed back to my quarters and some much needed recharge.


End file.
